Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer, right, celebrate after Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners on Oct. 20.David J. Phillip/The Associated Press
When, after advancing to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series last weekend, Toronto Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. declared to Canada that “I was born ready” for the next game’s pressure, Carson Illidge immediately thought of the Tragically Hip.
“I come from downtown, born ready for you,” the band’s late front man, Gord Downie, sang in 1994’s Grace, Too. The parallels were too strong for Illidge, the music lead at Rogers Sports & Media and Sportsnet’s game-soundtrack curator, to ignore. He knew had to make some magic happen the next night.
So he immediately got in touch with the Hip’s people and got permission to play the song during the biggest Blue Jays game in 32 years.
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And so last Monday, as the Jays worked towards clinching a spot in the 2025 World Series – and as Sportsnet drew in its biggest-ever Jays audience with an average of six million viewers – Grace, Too was a cornerstone of the broadcast. After appearing in a commercial bumper, it soundtracked the recap of a franchise-defining moment: building up slowly over slow-mo replays, and then, as Guerrero Jr. fell to his knees following Jeff Hoffman’s final strike-out, Downie’s key line came forth – “born ready for you.”
It was, after 32 years, a massive moment of catharsis for Jays fans.
The maestro of Sportsnet once couldn’t decide whether he wanted a career in music or sports. He’s now one of Canadian sports’ most influential music curators.
Illidge will be soundtracking the Jays’ World Series run on Sportsnet starting Friday night, working closely with lead audio operator Andrew Stoakley and producer Domenic Gentile.
Illidge spoke to The Globe and Mail by phone about his curatorial process. This interview has been edited and condensed.
What’s your philosophy when picking songs?
Just to live up to the moment. It’s our responsibility to elevate the game.
Where are you in these big moments?
I’m watching, just like a fan, and I’ve got my phone and laptop right in front of me. I’m in constant contact with the people pushing buttons in the Sportsnet truck. If I see something and I know we’ve got a song for it, I’m texting them immediately. My work, mainly, is leading up to the game in preparation. You know there’s going to be hits, there’s going to be outs, there’s going to be swings. So we prepare over 100 tracks, pretty much, per game, and we try to be ready for every situation.
Do you have preferred songs for some situations? I’m pretty sure I’ve heard the Gap Band’s You Dropped a Bomb On Me after a Jays homer. It’s perfect.
That’s a go-to example. We clear that one [getting copyright permission for broadcast usage] every year. It’s our go-to dinger montage song. I think in Seattle, Game 3, we dropped, like, a minute-and-30-second montage to that song – there were so many home runs. We like our funk and we like our baseball. And Alejandro by Lady Gaga – we’ve always got that ready to go for any Kirk home runs.
How much freedom do you have in selecting songs? I heard Nine Inch Nails the other night. You’re playing industrial rock for an audience of millions.
I just serve up ideas, and it’s up to the producers to nail it down – no Nine Inch Nails pun intended. We’re never not thinking about what fits, editorially or sonically. I kick around probably too many ideas, and then the producers whittle it down into something a little more sane.
You dropped KISS’s I Stole Your Love before a commercial break the night their former guitarist, Ace Frehley, died. Was that deliberate?
Very much so. We were actually very thankful; we had the song cleared for another use. We’re all huge KISS fans on the Sportsnet production side, so to be able to do a little tribute in-game was, again, living up to the moment.
What other subtle nods are you proud of recently?
In the game where Trey Yesavage had 11 strikeouts and Vladdy hit the grand slam, the dome was open, everyone was just rocking blue, and we cut a nice little in-game musical to Blue Highway by Billy Idol.
I love sneaking in geographical references, such as 7/4 Shoreline by Broken Social Scene, the iconic Toronto band. If Toronto has a big moment, I love references like that. It’s important to support Canadian music – whether it’s more established bands like Broken Social Scene or an independent band like Kasador, from Kingston, who we shot a music video series with. I get just as much excitement out of playing a big, or not-as-known, Canadian tune, and making the support known.
What’s the pressure like to meet the moment when you need to change a song in a split second?
We thought that Louis Varland was going to get out of an inning a couple games ago, and he ended up serving up a dinger. We had Louie Louie by The Kingsmen queued up. So I’m frantically texting the audio operator that I don’t think that one’s appropriate right now. He’s like, “Yep, we just said the exact same thing.”
Geddy Lee is often behind home plate at home games, and I’ve also heard Sportsnet cut to commercial with Tom Sawyer from his band Rush at least once these past few weeks. Have you ever met him at a game?
We actually shot with Geddy Lee a couple days before the playoffs started, as they were about to put down the postseason emblem paint on the field. He’s such a true Blue Jays fan, and not to mention, has got some great music that works for baseball.