After struggling in stints with Seattle and Baltimore since he left the Nationals after the 2012 season, Michael Morse is back to doing Beast Mode-like things in San Francisco.

Morse is batting .400 with two home runs through 10 games. He blasted a two-out, two-run double to the deepest part of AT&T Park last night, prompting this tweet from Giants beat reporter Andrew Baggarly.

Morse, you see, still uses A-ha’s “Take on Me” as his walk-up song for his third plate appearance every game. Why the third plate appearance?

“That’s when the, uhhh, fans have a little, you know, something to drink …” he said, smiling wide. “So they’re ready for it.”
Even after a half-decade of “Take On Me” at-bats, Morse still isn’t fully ready for it. The reaction from the crowds in Washington would get the already excitable Morse so fired up that he found himself jumping on first pitches.
“You have to swing!” he said. “I swing every time. Either the pitcher calls timeout, the catcher calls timeout or I swing. It’s like a high note.”
“They’re like ‘Meeeeeeeeeeeeeee!’ ” Morse continues, standing and leaning forward, his eyes bright as he mimics a massive swing, “And I’m like, ‘Aaaaaaaaaaahhh!’ “

The Meeeeeeeeeeees have continued at Nationals Park since Morse’s departure, with “Take On Me” becoming a fixture of the seventh-inning stretch. Not everyone is happy about that.

This qualifies as Nationals drama in 2014. I don’t have strong feelings either way about playing “Take On Me” during the seventh inning stretch. I do prefer it to “Sweet Caroline,” but I’d say the same thing about almost any song.

What do you think? If you don’t like “Take On Me,” suggest a potential replacement in the comments.

(Photos: Jeff Roberson and Jeff Chiu, AP)

(Thanks to @RyanJKelly.)