No one would imagine the Dodgers center fielder Yasiel Puig listening rock music in his free time. One associates him more with reggaeton, or timba, and if he is feeling romantic, maybe a bolero, but not heavy metal band must include him among its followers. But, the aggressive way of playing of the Cuban, his meteoric rise in the Major League Baseball and the attention generated by the media, led a group of young Americans to form a rock band with the name Puig Destroyer.
In a country where the ball is part of the popular culture it is strange that the presence of this in music is relegated to a few examples, with special reference to the song Centerfield by John Fogerty, great tribute to that position players as Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, and Ty Cobb were, which is continuously played at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Last year Thrice drummer Riley Breckenridge and bassist Ian Miller, while recording a podcast titled Productive Outs were talking about the moving up from the Minors of Puig to the LA Dodgers, and suddenly they decided to form a band called Puig Destroyer
What at first was just a joke, quickly gained strength, and Breckenridge sent Miller a score that would be the basis of his first song: One Man, five tools, accurate description of the Cienfuegos player.
Wasting no time they invited two friends, vocalist Mike Minnick and guitarist Jon Howell, to form a group, with topics related to the world of balls and strikes. The timing could not be better, because the actions of the Cuban in the field had him daily in the press and that led to an increase in web traffic in social networks for the new comers.
We thought that only about 50 people would hear our songs on the internet, but suddenly were many more, Breckenridge said to the media.
Although the owners of the Dodgers do not recognize the group as official, Puig himself heard him in a program and gave them his considerations.
Already in 2013 they released two EPs (discs that contain more than one single), “Puig Destroyer” and “Wait for Spring”, the first with six singles, and the second with eight, which highlights to Mike Trout, inspired the center fielder for the Angels and new album coming out today before the start of the playoffs in the MLB “TrumBomb,” which praises the characteristics of Arizona outfielder Mark Trumbo.
For now we just wait this LP gets a good turnover, and someday imitate Centerfield and is heard in Cooperstown, perhaps, we can only dream, when the player who gives the name to the band is inducted into the Hall of Fame.