This story was excerpted from Do-Hyoung Park’s Twins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Edouard Julien, are you going to rule again?
It’s the question that’s become a refrain for the greatest philosophers to ponder alongside other modern mysteries in the Twins’ clubhouse, and that query had been generated by writer and musician Davy Andrews, who wrote a tongue-in-cheek song with that refrain to accompany a story he wrote for FanGraphs back in the offseason.
First, that song buried deep within a story published in late January permeated the Twins’ clubhouse during Spring Training, in large part because of the team’s penchant for poking fun at Julien. And then, the song made its way into the clubhouse for real on Tuesday, when Andrews got to do a live performance for Julien in the clubhouse at Nationals Park.
“We put a little show together out there,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You don’t see that very often in a clubhouse after the game. But getting all the guys together, celebrating some Eddy and Davy, I mean, that’s great. It’s a hit. [Bench coach Jayce Tingler] mentioned it to the group: This is a real hit.”
This was, as the kids would say, Tingler’s Super Bowl. Tingler got such a kick out of the song when he heard it that he quickly got in contact with Andrews in the hopes of organizing a live performance on a Twins trip out east, where Andrews plays in a band alongside MLB.com’s own Mike Petriello and Michael Clair.
That ended up happening on Tuesday, when Andrews made it into the clubhouse, said hi, ate dinner and met the Twins -- but worried that a live performance might not fit the vibe of a team that had lost seven consecutive games entering the day.
“I think if there is a festive atmosphere after the game, they might want to hear it,” Andrews said. “And if not, nobody wants to play guitar for no reason.”
Good thing the Twins won that night, 10-0, aided by the arrival of the Rally Sausage in the mail -- which made for a jovial clubhouse punctuated by a raucous performance of “Edouard Julien, Are You Going To Rule Again?” by Andrews as Julien sat next to him on the clubhouse couch. Julien went in for a fist bump at the end as the team exploded into cheers around them.
Never, in a million years, could Andrews have imagined his work turning into this overwhelming day.
“I mentioned in the article that his name always reminds me of a different song by a band called Wckr Spgt,” Andrews said. “The article got pushed from Friday to Monday. I had a whole weekend of hearing that song in my head and I asked my editor if I could write my own, and they said, ‘Well, send it to me and we’ll see.’”
Tingler and the Twins sure are glad the editor said yes.
“I imagined [Julien] was wondering, ‘What kind of person writes that kind of song and puts it out into the world?’” Andrews said.
“Obviously, I heard it a lot in Spring Training and it was good to have him in person here and get in front of the guys,” Julien said. “It was funny because I’ve never heard any song about me. I wasn’t expecting that. It was good.”