Baseball Songs: The Berenguer Boogie

Juan Hit Wonder

Our brand here at TTSS is finding obscurities, often concealed in anonymity, always hiding deep inside a niche. Our latest series is no different: Baseball songs about individual players that got a vinyl (or some kinda physical media) release. We’ll be visiting some one-hit wonders, a spaceman, Bob Dylan, a James Brown sound-a-like, and the “Pine-Tar Incident.” How’s that for teaser?

First up is a song that did not come from a 7” single, but from a VHS tape. We here at TTSS wear our “Physical Media Forever” t-shirts proudly. Let’s get this fuzzy analog video into your eye holes ASAP. The Berenguer Boogie!

I don’t blame you if you don’t make it all the way through. It’s a tough watch, but you can really feel the adoration in that Metrodome celebration, and then, maybe, this train wreck of a music video renders you helpless to avert your eyes. Maybe not. Understandable, as this artifact of another time (1987) and another place (unless you live in Minneapolis) is what happens when your primary artistic influence is the 1985 Chicago Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle.”

As always, TTSS asks the big questions: WHAT? HOW? WHY? WHO?

Mainly WHY?

Skip forward to the 6-minute mark on that youtube video and a local news behind-the-scenes package will simultaneously answer your questions and raise about 200 new ones. 

The WHO of the “Berenguer Boogie” is Juan Berenguer, a Panamanian pitcher with a 15-year major league career, two World Series rings, yet just 9.9 WAR. What he lacked in consistent pitch-ability, he made up for with impeccable timing, luck, and personality. 

Berenguer showed promise in the minors, but struggled in his brief MLB call-ups. From 1975 (age 20) through 1982 (age 27), he was 3-17 with as many walks as strikeouts and a 5.15 ERA. His career looked cooked when Detroit Tigers pitching coach Roger Craig taught him a split-finger pitch to keep hitters off his spritely fastball. His next season was a revelation. He threw 157 innings with a 3.14 ERA, a well-timed career save for Berenguer, as that 1983 Tigers team was loaded. Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammell, Chet Lemon, Kirk Gibson, and Jack Morris were all in their mid-twenties prime. 

So it’s not surprising that the 1984 Tigers won 104 games and the AL East. Berenguer made 27 starts with a 113 ERA+, but was moved to long relief in preparation for the playoffs. The Tigers however swept the Royals in the ALCS then mashed the Padres in the World Series, 4-to-1. Berenguer got a ring, but never pitched.

Three years later, he would get back to the World Series and find himself dancing in a trench coat and fedora at Prince’s Paisley Park Studios. For serious, that’s where this masterpiece was shot. 

Berenguer merchandising gone wild.

After two middling years with the 1985 Tigers and the 1986 Giants, Berenguer signed a free agent contract with the Minnesota Twins. He pitched so well that nicknames accumulated: “Pancho Villa” “The Panama Express” “Senior Smoke” “El Gasolino.” These are not nicknames that would fly in today’s world, but it was the 1980s. Things were different. 

The 1987 Twins were full of big personalities: Kent Hrbek, Kirby Puckett, Bert Blyleven, Frank Viola. This was the year Twins pitcher Joe Niekro famously tossed an emery board off the mound while umpires were searching him for doctoring the baseball. Berenguer fit right in.

Berenguer and the Twins won their division and faced his former team Detroit in the ALCS. This time, Berenguer pitched in four of the five games: 6 innings, 1 hit, 1 run. He was the rare baseball player who showed actual emotion on the field at a time when unwritten rules forbad it. 

“Don’t ever try to embarrass my players,” said Tigers Manager and classic grump Sparky Anderson. “Whatever this is, with the glove coming up and the hand coming down, don’t wake the sleeping dog.”

That dog never woke. The Twins beat the Tigers four games to one, then won their first-ever World Series over the St. Louis Cardinals. Another World Series ring for Juan Berenguer. 

That “glove coming up and hand coming down” was Berenguer’s signature move and made him a fan favorite. Let’s see that move again, shall we? Note the accompanying 1980s sci-fi gun-shot ricochet BOING in this super-cut.

My research has not found any reason for the trench coat, the fedora, or the briefcase, but you can see the— dare I say— CHARISMA of Berenguer and the smile that never quits.

The Minnesota Twins would fall from WS Champs to last place in just three seasons. After which, serendipitous Berenguer signed a free agent contract with the Atlanta Braves. And in 1991, both the Twins and the Atlanta Braves would both go from worst to first.

36-year old Berenguer pitched in 49 games, with 17 saves and a sparkling 2.24 ERA that year. Late in the season, Berenguer broke his pitching arm wresting with his kids and missed the entire playoff run. He might have been the difference as the Braves lost to the Twins in maybe the tightest World Series of all time (five of the seven games decided by one run, three in extra innings).

Berenguer returned to pitch two more MLB seasons, plus five more in independent baseball, finally retiring at 42 years old.

When you do the one thing you love from the time you’re a teenager until you’re middle-aged, you might just luck (or skill) your way into the occasional highest high. A World Series (or two). A parade in your honor. A music video.

Reportedly Prince and Madonna watched the shooting of “Berenguer Boogie” from a back corner of Prince’s studio. If you can top that… Never mind. You can’t. 

Then again, you might also break your arm on the way to a third World Series. You take the good with the bad, but if you’re anything like Berenguer, you keep smiling. I’ve now seen hundreds of photos of Juan Berenguer. He’s smiling in ALL OF THEM.

The man just loved ball. Find your ball and boogie.