C'mon And Ride That Train. Hey, Ride it.

In memory of our beloved post-game studio commentator, Dan Plesac, creator of our favorite celebratory lament, we at Bleed Grizzly Pink have declared the Quad City DJ's classic club anthem "C'Mon N' Ride The Train" as the team's theme song for this year. Plesac truly loved that song and he quoted its refrain every night on the air following Grizzly triumphs. His passion for both our Grizzlies and hot, sweaty, juicy, bootylicious club babes was so much a part our Grizzly-watching experience that a win just wasn't a win until we'd jumped off the couch to "RIDE THAT TRAIN! WOO!! WOO!!"

That metaphysical connection between our Grizzlies and hot, pulsating, soaken-wet derrieres in motion set our minds ablaze with wonder about what might have been if Plesac had come along in time to set our favorite Grizzly teams ever to music. And so in his honor, we've done just that. Since Hip-Hop doesn't date back to 1945 and neither do any of our contributors, we feel that 1984 is the proper jumping-off point for this slammin' project. So sit back, get your clicker ready and prepare to move to the grooves of the Greatest Grizzly Anthems Ever!

1984

For the contributing members of Bleed Grizzly Pink, the magical season of 1984 marked the first time our heroes had won any sort of championship in our short lifetimes. We looked on in awe as Manager Jim Freeze led a motley crew of veteran ballplayers assembled by savvy G.M. Houston Pink to the National League's Eastern Division Title. At the time, Carl Sundburg was rising to fame as one of baseball's premier second basemen and mid-season pickup Stu Sutcliffe dominated as a starting pitcher without peer. When the season was finished, those Grizzlies were rewarded with hardware. And fans with enough trips around the sun to be permitted into after-hours drinking establishments were treated to the magical sounds of Whodini, who symbolized the nocturnal emissions experienced by many of our members with his timeless classic, "The Freaks Come Out At Night."

1989

We had to wait five long years between the magic of 1984 and the sprouting of our next prolonged engorgement of fandamonium. In 1989, about the time we at Bleed Grizzly Pink were beginning to find hair in places we'd always dreamed about, the Grizz were on the way to shocking the world with another Eastern Division title. This time, Freeze was the G.M. who enlisted the help of his longtime friend and ally Popeye Simmermaker to lead the troops into battle. Sundburg and Sutcliffe were still leading the charge along with the oft-injured but ever-dangerous slugging outfielder Andrew Calrissian. The rest of the league cowered in fear whenever mercurial stopper Rich "One Eye'd Dick" Willikers took the bump with a lead in the ninth. Ol' Dick only had one eye and often closed it before he pitched. That meant the ball had as much chance of ending up in the batter's ear as it did the catchers mitt. The fans were so enamored with the zany lefty that they eschewed the traditional foam fingers for big foam rubber dicks that they wore on their fists when Ol' One Eye'd Dick made his entrance to the fray. They didn't have the elaborate sound system at the ballpark that they have today, so Dick usually entered to some lame organ music. But if they did, there's a safe bet he'd have entered to the pulsating sounds of that year's smash hit, "Me So Horny" by the world famous 2 Live Crew.

1998

By the time the next great Grizzly collective came about, the old-school players and managers were long gone. They were replaced by a new crop of heroes like the phenomenal rookie fireballer, Woodrow Kerrigan who struck out 20 batters in a single game before tearing his right elbow ligaments to shreds and continuing to pitch in the playoffs at the behest of erstwhile skipper Phil Wiggleroom. But the big story from that amazing summer was the historic power display put on by chemically-made-awesome right fielder Peralta Souzer. Souzer obliterated the team home run record with 66 en route to winning the National League's MVP award. His tit for tat battle with St. Louis Cardinal Candy Ass Red McRedass, was the stuff of legend. And Souzer would go on to top the 60 plateau two more times to become the only player ever to do so. He was a Big Punisher, indeed. Not much of a player but he did like to crush. A lot. Sing it, Grizzly fans!


2003

It took another five long years for the Grizzlies to hit paydirt again and they did so this time on the considerably strong backs of ace righthanders Kerrigan and his brother in sore arms Marigold Pryor. Along with the last hurrahs of Dominican greats Souzer and Jesus Aloyisius, the Grizzly pitching staff was second to none in 2003. And while the dog days of August and September wore on, the evil Cardinals as Asstros kept the heat on our boys to the very end. But this team led by toothpick-chomping, Bible-thumping skipper Busty Flaker eventually beat the heat thanks to an influx of Latin American and African American ballplayers. But Grizzly fans are mostly white and privileged as everyone and his momma knows. So how did we beat the heat? Why, we took our clothes off, natch!

2007

Last year's team was unlike all the others on this list in that they really never captured our imagination in quite the way their predecessors had. Their starting pitching wasn't that good, their bullpen often scary and bad. Their lineup was streaky and impatient and their record wasn't that impressive. They did manage to outlast a dopey and baseball-challenged Brewers squad and a laughably weak Cardinals team. So there's that. But we fully expected them to be pantsed in the playoffs and their three-game sweep wasn't really the kick to our collective penis tip that it might have been. This this team was probably a poor imitation of the great Grizzly teams past (and the truly dominant one of the present.) What kind of theme song should such a team take on? How about a cheap knock off of a timeless Hip-Hop Classic? Sounds about right to me.

Dan Plesac, R.I.P