The Washington Nationals won their maiden Major League Baseball World Series title by defeating the Houston Astros. The Nationals started poorly by losing to the New York Mets at home in March. But the fortunes of the team changed after signing outfielder Gerardo Parra in May.
Parra, who had a slump in batting form, changed his walk-up music to Pinkfong's 'Baby Shark' after having tried 'reggaeton, hip-hop and merengue music'.
This change in music inspired a comeback to form as the player hit a home run in his first game after walking in to 'Baby Shark'.
Recovering from a 0-for-23 slump, Parra went 2-of-4 at the plate and hit the home run to help the then 34-38 Nationals to a 6-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on June 19.
As a superstition, Parra kept the song as his walk-up to finish the season with a .262 batting average as the Nationals won the National League title by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals.
By that time, the Nationals' fans had made the song the unofficial anthem of the Nationals Park and even Parra's teammates used the song's dance move to celebrate runs.
It started with the fans welcoming Parra to the ground by singing the song in unison.
His teammates celebrated a single by clapping their forefinger and thumb together as "baby shark", a double with their hands together as "mommy shark" and for a triple or home run they clapped their arms together as "daddy shark".
On July 23, the Nationals added a jumbotron animation showing three Parra figures clapping along with the song to accentuate his walk-up music.
From walk-up music to inspiring the team to win the MLB World Series, we can say that Parra's daughter's favourite 'Baby Shark' played a big part.
Due to the viral nature of the song and the Nationals' notching their maiden win, the MLB shop website sold more than $100,000 worth of 'Baby Shark' merchandise.