Chris Rodriguez on Metallica, Mariano Rivera, and Baseball in Berlin

The Revolverheld bassist is an Orioles fan who wears baseball caps as identity rather than accessory. He talks about playing catch for the first time in Berlin, discovering Cal Ripken Jr., and building an INNINGS playlist around the many sounds of baseball.

For Chris Rodriguez, baseball has never occupied a separate corner of his life. It is threaded through the music he plays, the caps he wears, the friends he made on Berlin ballfields, and the memories he carried home from the American East Coast.

His relationship with the game began with two gloves, one baseball, and a Cuban acquaintance. It grew through Baltimore Orioles broadcasts, Cal Ripken Jr., movie soundtracks, trading cards, and weekends with his teammates. Now Rodriguez has turned that personal archive into a baseball playlist for INNINGS.

The First Throw

INNINGS: When did you first become aware that baseball and music belonged together? Was there a particular video, song, or image that made the connection?

Chris Rodriguez: Baseball and making music entered my life at almost exactly the same time, in the mid-1990s. Soon afterward, I traveled to the East Coast with my best friend’s family and was able to watch baseball properly on television for the first time.

That was when I realized how much the music changed the experience, even when I was sitting at home—the walk-up songs, the highlight reels, all of it.

Did you discover baseball through music, or did the game come first?

I found baseball independently of music. A Cuban acquaintance had started playing in Berlin and brought along two gloves and a ball. After about ten minutes of playing catch, I knew: This is my game. I want to play.

Caps as Identity

Jay-Z once claimed that he had made the Yankees cap more famous than any Yankees player could. Looking back at your own career, was baseball style ever a deliberate part of your image—or did it find its way in naturally?

I joined the same club as my Cuban friend, the Berlin Bats, pretty quickly. I felt as though that was the first time I had really put on a cap, and from then on I wore one almost everywhere.

Part of it was pride. I was proud to belong to the team. But I also simply loved—and still love—the look. I was never particularly happy with my hair, either, so the cap came in handy. I would wear my own jersey away from the field from time to time, too.

Baseball caps appear throughout German music culture. You are often seen wearing a crossed-bats cap. Is that a conscious statement, or simply part of a visual language you absorbed over time?

It is absolutely conscious. I own around 100 caps now, and they are probably the only fashion accessory I deliberately choose every day.

For a long time, I wore the cap of my last Berlin club, the Berlin Challengers. I strongly identified with the team and missed being part of it. Then, while looking for Baltimore Orioles caps, I discovered JustFitteds in Hamburg. A genuine friendship built around caps has grown from that.

Caps have become something of a trademark for me. If I am not wearing one, even some of my friends do not recognize me immediately.

Building a Baseball Playlist

You have curated a playlist for INNINGS. What was the principle behind it? Were you looking for songs that explicitly mention baseball, or for music that captures the feeling of the game?

Few sports make room for as wide a range of music as baseball. You hear hip-hop, rock, country, Latin music—everything—when hitters walk to the plate or pitchers enter the game.

That is why there is no single “baseball sound” for me. The playlist includes songs that have accompanied my own life with the game, including tracks from video games and movie soundtracks. Then there are songs that are genuinely about baseball, such as Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days.”

Baseball has a peculiar dramatic rhythm: long, almost meditative stretches followed by one explosive moment. Bottom of the ninth, two outs, bases loaded. Are there songs that capture that combination of patience and release for you?

There are concerts where the audience is a little restrained at first. But you know there are still one or two bangers on the setlist that will make everyone completely lose it.

That is very similar to a baseball game. You know the moment may be coming, but you do not know exactly when.

Metallica, Mariano, and Cal

If you had to choose three songs that belong on every baseball playlist, what would they be?

“Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z, because it is one of my favorite hip-hop tracks—and, as an Orioles fan, I enjoy the little jab at the Yankees.

Then “Wild Thing” by The Troggs. I have not watched any baseball movie as often as Major League, and Charlie Sheen’s entrance as Ricky Vaughn, complete with those glasses, is simply iconic.

The third is Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” the entrance music of probably the greatest closer of all time, Mariano Rivera. I had goosebumps when he took the mound for the final time in 2013.

Niko Backspin has described his own baseball origin story on the INNINGS podcast. At 12, he spent ten days immersed in the World Series from a Toronto hotel room; afterward, his uncle sent him a wooden bat from the United States. Do you have a moment like that?

I have two.

The first was playing catch for the first time. I fell for the game immediately. The second came during that trip to the East Coast, when I could watch Orioles baseball almost every day and saw Cal Ripken Jr., my favorite player, for the first time.

I loved everything about the way he played.

American Sports, German Life

You are a musician, but clearly also a dedicated sports fan. Which sports do you follow besides baseball?

American football is at the top of the list. Then there is some soccer, the NHL, and the NBA. I also play golf whenever I can find the time.

Soccer is practically compulsory in Germany. What is your relationship with it: passionate fan, occasional viewer, or someone who sometimes finds the surrounding hype excessive?

Unfortunately, I am a Hertha BSC fan, and the past few years have not exactly been enjoyable.

I have also lived in Hamburg for more than a decade now, and it makes a considerable difference when you cannot regularly attend games in person. But my real affection has always been for American sports. I also enjoy knowing a little more about them than I generally do during conversations about soccer.

American football and basketball have grown enormously in Germany. The Super Bowl is a pop-cultural event, while NBA aesthetics are everywhere in streetwear. Do you notice that influence in music as well?

American sports are definitely more influential for me. You see it in caps, jerseys, and vintage merchandise. There is a lot of it throughout music culture.

Even the language of American sports is used metaphorically. Johannes Strate, Revolverheld’s singer, is a big sports fan too. We sometimes refer to the final song in a set as our closer. I obviously like that very much.

Is there a sport you follow that most people would not expect—something that fascinates you precisely because it receives little mainstream attention?

That description still fits baseball better than anything else.

The Sport That Runs Through Everything

INNINGS approaches baseball as a cultural phenomenon encompassing fashion, music, film, and community. Is there one sport that carries particular cultural meaning for you?

My answer is always baseball. That is what the game has always been for me.

Whenever I think back to my youth and early adulthood, baseball is there: the game itself, the weekends at the field, the friends I made on the team, the movies we watched, the video games we played, even the cards we collected.

It runs through all those memories.

Sport and music share an important quality: they create moments that are experienced collectively but remain intensely personal. A concert or a decisive game can bring people together in ways that are difficult to explain. Does that resonate with you?

Absolutely. When I imagined my future as a kid, I pictured myself as a professional athlete just as often as I pictured myself as a musician.

The only problem was that I was nowhere near good enough at any sport.

What I like about music is that I can hopefully continue making it for the rest of my life—and, most of the time, you cannot lose.

“You Only Get What You Give”

What do you hope people take from your INNINGS playlist? Should it draw them toward the sport, or demonstrate that baseball has been present in music all along?

Ideally, a little of both.

More than anything, I want the playlist to show that baseball can be a sport for everyone. A baseball game is not only about the competition. With the right music and the right snacks, any game—at any level—can become a party, regardless of what is happening on the field.

Last question: If baseball were a song, which song would it be?

“You Get What You Give” by the New Radicals. It reminds me of a very carefree period in my life, when baseball was a huge part of everything.