Depending on one's perspective, Los Angeles Angels either treated to, or punished by, a long night of Nickelback

by Mike Usinger on June 9th, 2022 at 1:50 PM

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Perspective is everything, especially when it comes to Vancouver (via Hanna, Alberta) multi-platinum kings Nickelback. For every classic rock ran who—quite understandably—can’t get enough of the inarguably great “How You Remind Me”, there’s a Corey Taylor from Slipknot who never misses an opportunity to take aim at singer Chad Kroeger and Company. (Recall, if you will, the 2017 interview where Taylor came up with “Chad Kroeger is to rock what KFC is to chicken. Is that wrong? I feel like I’m not wrong… I’ll still eat it but I’m not gonna feel good about it.”).

In the weird position of being a favourite pop-culture punching bag while selling millions and millions of records, Nickelback likely doesn’t give a shit what anything thinks about the band. How many of the group’s countless critics have owned $8 million B.C. homes with an actual hockey rink in the basement?

Exactly. Enjoy your shift at Home Depot today. And remember that the sash cord is in aisle 32.

Because Nickelback is, well, Nickelback, anytime anyone admits to liking the band it’s somehow treated like headline-worthy news. Which brings us to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Fans of the most mind-numbingly slow sport this side of chess and basketball know that the Southern California Major League Baseball team has hit a bit of rough patch lately. After leading the AL West with a 10 games over .500 record a few weeks back, the Angels have been on a protracted skid. That led to the firing of manager Joe Maddon this week.

Yesterday, the Angels decided it was time to take a bold step to mix things up.

Every Angels batter who walked to the plate did so to Nickelback. Interim manager Phil Nevin denied he was responsible, even though he's a self-proclaimed fan of Nickelback, and obviously that guy at the party who commandeers the stereo and screeches “I love this song, and you will too!!!”

So while he normally swings the bat after a quick snippet of “The Greatest Show” from The Greatest Showman soundtrack, Shohei Ohtani was this time treated to “Photograph.”

https://twitter.com/SarahWexler32/status/1534725051374702592

From there it was “Rockstar” for Jo Adell, “How You Remind Me” for Jared Walsh, and “Someday” for Matt Duffy.

“I like Nickelback,” Nevin told MLB.com. “The entire game, I got the songs in my head, I can’t stop singing, and the next guy comes up. … It was neat, for a while.”

While neat, the Angels lost the game 1-0. Making one wonder if everyone on the team and in the stands will be continued to be bombarded by Nickelback, Nickelback, and more Nickelback until the team wins.

Which really isn’t that bad when one considers that the ’90s-themed alternatives include Creed, the Dave Matthews Band and Toby Keith.

Or, even worse, having to walk from the batter’s circle while listening to Fred Durst bellow “I did it all for the nookie/(Come on) the nookie/(Come on) so you can take that cookie”.

Here’s the complete list of each Nickelback song played for each Angel.