A.J. Pierzynski, the evil genius of the baseball playoffs, has struck again. He’s one of the Chicago White Sox players behind the team, and its fans, adopting Journey’s 1981 hard-rock hackwork "Don’t Stop Believin’" as its World Series theme song. The story of a small-town girl livin’ in a lonely world and a city boy born and raised in south Detroit shoves aside the historical Sox favorite, Steam’s 1968 "Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)," played when an opposing pitcher is knocked out of the game, or when William Ligue gets hauled away by the police.

The White Sox are merely but one of many teams that has poached a popular song as a way to fire up themselves and their fans. The quality of a song, or what it’s actually about, doesn’t necessarily matter.

To give some historical perspective — as well as to introduce other songs so Steve Perry’s voice is not the only one in your head the rest of the day — here are some other prominent cases of champion teams — or wanna-be champions — inextricably linked to certain songs.

Pittsburgh Pirates  "We Are Family"
"We Are Family," 26 years after working its mojo, remains the gold standard for successful pop-song plundering. Sister Sledge’s feel-good disco anthem of sibling harmony fit perfectly with the feel-good vibe of the Pirates — heck, they even had their own "Pops," in the person of Willie Stargell, who played the song in the clubhouse every day. By the time of the World Series against Baltimore, Pirates fans were carrying "Fam-i-Lee!" banners the size of billboards into Three Rivers Stadium.

Some teams talk about curses, but Pirates fans talk about the "Family" magic that brought the Pirates three straight wins and their last World Series title. The Pirates' record since 1979 indicates the "Family" they represent now is the kind that shows up on "The Jerry Springer Show."

Detroit Lions — "Another One Bites the Dust"
The Lions, mostly lousy since winning their last NFL championship in 1957, got quite excited in starting the 1980 season with four straight wins. Alas, too excited. Safety Jimmy Allen has the chutzpah to re-record Queen’s "Another One Bites the Dust," with Freddie Mercury’s singing and lyrics replaced by Allen and his teammates going on about how great they were. Sample lyric: "Come and watch them Detroit Lions/who no one seems to beat."

Soon enough, the Lions would need to replace "no one" with "almost everybody." The team faded to a 9-7 record and didn’t even make the playoffs. The 1985 Chicago Bears started 12-0, but noting how the football gods punished the Lions for their hubris, waited until actually making the Super Bowl to put out their own lousy, monstrously popular song.

Chicago Bulls — "Sirius"

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If you know that "Sirius" is the instrumental intro that kicks off the Alan Parsons’ Project 1982 "Eye in the Sky" album, you must be Alan Parsons. Everyone else knows "Sirius" as the intro music that kicked off every overwrought Bulls player introduction ceremony during the Michael Jordan years. There wasn’t a wedding reception in the Chicago area in the 1990s that didn’t have the DJ playing "Sirius" while the best man channeled Bulls P.A. announcer Ray Clay during the wedding party introductions: "AAAAAAND Nowwwwww, your BRIDALLLLL PARTYYYY!!!! At GROOOOOMSMAN …"

Outside of blessed events, "Sirius" has been cribbed by everyone from Japanese pro baseball’s Chiba Lotte Marines to minor-league hockey’s Mississippi Seawolves, though the Bulls, no longer winning titles, don’t play it anymore. Good thing, because it got so overdone, fans started to channel John McEnroe when they heard the song: "This cannot be 'Sirius!'"

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