Following up on previous posts on sports idioms and references to basketball in popular music, and, more importantly, in honor of Jackie Robinson Day, this post takes a look at baseball references in songs from Billboard's year-end Top 30 charts (1951-2016).

Of the terms that were investigated, only a few appear multiple times: home run in two songs ("Wild Ones" and "My House"); shortstop in two songs ("Dilemma" and "Right Thurr"); and (Joe) DiMaggio (the only name of a baseball player found in the collection) also in two songs ("Mrs. Robinson" and "Vogue").

Several terms appear in one song each: Louisville Slugger ("Before He Cheats"); major league ("My Way"), pitcher's mound ("Good Feeling"); and swing your bat ("Bang Bang").

One conclusion to be drawn from these results is that Flo Rida apparently loves the game of baseball, or at least finds its imagery to be useful in his music, as three of the aforementioned songs are his.

For a word search on the terms found here, click here.

And for one of my favorite songs incorporating baseball imagery, see the clip below:

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