Wilmer Flores, who is from Venezuela, loves the Backstreet Boys, the popular American boy band that burst onto the music scene in the 1990s. Listening to them while growing up, he said, helped him learn English, his second language.
Noah Syndergaard, a Texas native, now has Latin music on his cellphone.
But in the crossover of musical tastes in the Mets’ locker room, which is a testament to the melting pot that baseball can be, nothing can probably match the fact that Yoenis Cespedes, who defected from Cuba, is now obsessed with country music.
Ask Cespedes about it and he can show you his long playlists of artists like Tim McGraw (son of the former Met Tug McGraw) and Stoney LaRue.