By Steve Palec Special to OnMilwaukee Published Jun 01, 2011 at 2:42 PM

I realize I haven't written a blog in some time. Cue my music, please ...

"It's been a while" –Staind

What inspired me is that I was thinking that us long-time Brewers fans are being treated to some excellent production values. In other words, Fox Sports Wisconsin does a phenomenal job televising games. From announcers, to crowd shots, to replays, to graphics, to interviews ... it is top notch.

And the in-game experience at Miller Park is as good as it gets. Despite the historic memories, the only activity I remember now from County Stadium was dodging falling concrete. I love the new scoreboard, the vendors, the promotions and the reduced number of Cubs fans.

Oh yeah, I also love walk-on music. I don't seem to remember ballplayers having songs played at County Stadium. Maybe they did and the one speaker distorted them?

What a cool phenomena. Players having their own songs.

Rickie Weeks (whose name sounds like a website) has a song that sounds like it should for a leadoff hitter. I wanted to download Ace Hood's "Hustle Hard," but I didn't want to take a chance of playing the explicit version on the air and the clean version had to skip so many words, I didn't feel it was worth the money.

Ryan Braun uses Kanye West's "H.A.M." and Prince Fielder has T.I.'s "Swagger Like Us." No big surprises. The biggest surprise is Corey Hart, who in the past, with that International Harvester song or some Alan Jackson tune, has you ready to stereotype him. Now he pulls out 12 Stones, a New Orleans Rock Band, and "Anthem For The Underdog."

I don't mean to stereotype here, myself, but I really like the musical taste of the Latin players the past few years, like Carlos Gomez, Alcides Escobar and Yuniesky Betancourt and some of the songs they use. Sorry, I don't know the artists ... but every once in a while I will put on the Caliente channel on satellite radio and listen to muy more than 20 seconds of the tunes.

Then I look around and figure I better switch back to KLH before anyone sees me. By the way, I heard Carlos Gomez come to bat with some Damian Marley once. And he got a hit. Of course, that is nine hits fewer than Damian's dad used to take in the same amount of time.

There are of course, a number of songs a classic rock dinosaur like myself knows well. Craig Counsell and his choice of Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower." Or Mark Kotsey and Counting Crows' "Mr. Jones."

Casey McGehee comes close. His choice of "Simple Man" is simple elegance ... just perfect. He eschews the vintage Lynyrd Skynyrd bouquet for the Shinedown version. Still classy, nonetheless.

Finally, my hands down favorite choice is that of Nyjer Morgan. Not only a song I know, and a good song, too, but just the perfect combination of upbeat and apropos. He uses Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Starting Something." Then he makes things happen.

Walk-up music is such a cool concept maybe we should all incorporate it into our everyday lives.

I am just hoping when it comes to October, the Brewers are still playing at Miller Park.

May I suggest: Parliament's "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)"?

Steve Palec Special to OnMilwaukee
Steve Palec, the host of WKLH's "Rock and Roll Roots" wrote a letter to every radio station in town when he was a sophomore in high school. He offered to sweep floors.

Two responses came back, including one janitor position. Steve took the other: the opportunity to hang out at WUWM.

After that, he worked at WAUK, then WQFM, then WZUU, then back to WQFM ... and finally worked afternoons at WKLH for a little while.

"I gave up Eddie Money to earn money in 1986," says Steve, who eventually entered the world of commercial real estate.

"But 23 years ago WKLH offered me the chance to wake up early every Sunday morning," he says. "I mean every Sunday morning. I mean like 5:30 am. I mean no matter what I did on Saturday night. Live every Sunday morning. I love it."