ST. PETERSBURG -- As Aaron Civale warmed up with catcher Christian Bethancourt before the first inning Friday night, three hours before Wander Franco’s thrilling walk-off home run capped a 9-8 victory over the Guardians, a familiar electric violin riff rang through the speakers at Tropicana Field.
It was an unmistakable sound for Rays fans: the intro and first verse of “Down and Out” by Tantric, still best known in this building as franchise icon Evan Longoria’s walkup song.
It was no coincidence.
Civale and his older brother, Nic, became big fans of Longoria as they grew up watching baseball together. The Connecticut natives were Red Sox fans, naturally, but that gave them plenty of opportunities to watch the Rays. Nic was an infielder who went on to play at Quinnipiac University, and he took a liking to Longoria.
“He was one of the guys [Nic] really enjoyed watching play. I owe a lot of my love and success in baseball to my older brother,” Civale said Friday night. “He was a guy that I appreciated as well.”
As a way to honor Longoria and his brother, Civale adopted the star third baseman’s walkup music as his own in Cleveland, where he made his Major League debut in 2019 and played until the Trade Deadline deal that brought him to Tampa Bay on July 31. The Tantric tune followed Civale to The Trop on Friday night, when he made his home debut for his new club against his former Guardians teammates.
Civale allowed two runs over five innings, acknowledging there were plenty of emotions at play as he faced his old friends, not to mention in his first appearance at his new home ballpark. With his start out of the way, the right-hander got a chance to catch up with Cleveland players and staff before Saturday’s game.
With an understanding of Longoria’s status as the greatest player in franchise history -- nobody here has worn his No. 3 since he was traded -- Civale was admittedly unsure at first about using the same warmup music with his new club. He ran the idea by team leader Brandon Lowe and club officials before his start day, and they all gave the green light.
“I definitely asked to see, because I know what he means to this organization. Didn’t want to step on any toes,” Civale said. “But I think it’s an honor to share that.”
“Obviously with the history that Longo has with this place, it's kind of like the respectful thing to do. It’s probably why nobody wears No. 3,” Lowe added. “It's not stepping on any toes. We just want him to settle in and be good.”
Longoria walked to the plate to that song throughout his 10-year tenure with Tampa Bay, starting with his rookie year in 2008, and he still uses it in Arizona in his 16th big league season. It became closely associated with the club’s franchise player, with Tantric even playing a postgame concert at Tropicana Field in 2010.
As Civale said, grinning, “It’s just a good walkup song in general.”