The Return of “Call My Name”
Back in 2005, when different people were running the Quakes front office, we developed for their new video board a musical montage of Quakes highlights. The idea was to use it as a pre-game introduction, similar to Calling All Angels was used at Angel Stadium.
After searching for the “right” theme, I came up with an obscure piece recorded in 1974 by rocker Sammy Hagar. It was titled Call My Name, and was a demo piece for his first album label. It was never released publicly until 2004 on The Essential Red Collection CD.
The bonus is that Hagar originates from Fontana, next to Rancho Cucamonga, which gave it a local flavor. More importantly, no one had heard of it (unless they played the album), so it wasn’t an immediately recognizable theme such as Let’s Get It Started by The Black Eyed Peas.
The idea was to update it about once a month, using new video footage I shot. Some parts with historic moments, such as Dallas McPherson’s homer off Randy Johnson, would always remain while other parts would rotate in and out to include new players.
That administration departed and Call My Name was no longer used, but last winter the current folks asked me to propose some ideas for the video board. I reminded them about Call My Name, and directed them to the versions in the FutureAngels.com Video Gallery. They agreed to resurrect Call My Name, incorporating new footage.
So the newest version premiered during last week’s homestand. It’s not played every night, because sometimes extended pre-game festivities eat up available time.
Click Here to watch the new version of Call My Name. You need Windows Media Player and a broadband (cable modem, DSL) Internet connection to watch.
Part of the fun is looking for how many current major leaguers are in the video. There are also “inside jokes,” e.g. Tom Kotchman is in there in a crowd shot watching Casey hit a homer. The players notice it right away, because most of them played for Kotch.
Because I’m probably moving to Florida in June, it won’t be updated any more except perhaps with one more version I’ll try to do before I go with this year’s players.
FutureAngels.com 