No more 'second-place song': Phils eye new '23 anthem

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Fifty years from now, Callum Scott’s “Dancing On My Own (Ti?sto Remix)” will play somewhere, and an octogenarian J.T. Realmuto might tap his feet to it. Memories of 2022 will come flooding back.

But the Phillies’ theme song from their wildly fun World Series run will be retired from Garrett Stubbs’ “Phils Win” Spotify playlist in 2023. As it probably should be, right?

“That one took us all the way to the World Series,” Realmuto said. “It’s a yearly thing. New year, new team. We’ve got a lot of new faces. New song. I don’t know who’s in charge of the songs this year. It’s definitely not going to be me, but somehow organically a song will come up.”

Scott’s tune captured a moment and feeling in time, playing in the clubhouse not only after Phillies victories throughout the regular and postseason, but at Citizens Bank Park in the fall, and parties and weddings throughout the Delaware Valley and beyond (including Aaron Nola’s offseason wedding).

But it was never meant to be a TV theme song like “Ted Lasso,” carried from one season to the next. Instead, it will remain linked to Bryce Harper’s NL pennant-clinching homer in Game 5 of the NLCS, Rhys Hoskins’ bat spike in Game 3 of the NLDS and those champagne-soaked celebrations.

Besides …

“It’s a second-place song,” Kyle Schwarber said. “It’s done.”

The Phillies want first place.

“I personally think it’s the 2022 Phillies,” Hoskins said. “Something will pop up during the year, right? We’ll latch into something.”

Stubbs was the team’s unofficial DJ last year. He might have had only a few hundred likes on his playlist when it caught fire after the Phillies swept the Cardinals in the NL Wild Card Series in October. It has more than 20,000 today.

“The playlist last year, it just kind of started,” Stubbs said. “It just created as time went on. It wasn’t like Day 1, ‘Dancing On My Own’ was the song. Or the other ones either. We started playing random music afterward, and all of a sudden certain songs stuck more than others. I’m sure there will be other songs that continue to play, but I think the main one will stay in 2022. It’s such an awesome song, and I think it fit really well for that team, too.”