CSN: A’s do ‘Bernie Lean’ in music video shoot

I remember hanging around Wackie’s Bronx House of Reggae/Rap Music back in ‘79/80 where all the old-time Reggae dudes thought Rap was a novelty. Sigh.

“Can you Bernie Lean? Can you, can you Bernie Lean? I can Bernie Lean, I can, I can Bernie Lean.”

As the lyrics to ATM & IMD’s Bernie Lean song reverberated through the empty Oakland Coliseum, a group of eight A’s players tilted back and wiggled to the beat (or in some cases off beat) with the young Los Angeles-based rappers and their camera man.

A’s manager Bob Melvin looked on—likely in horror.

They were doing the Bernie, the cult dance craze loosely based on “Weekend At Bernie’s II” that has spread through the A’s clubhouse and into the stands. As part of “Bernie Weekend” at the Coliseum, Coco Crisp and the A’s invited the Bernie Lean musicians out to shoot a music video on Friday and Saturday. The player’s rallied around the opportunity.

“It’s very cool,” Jerry Blevins said. “It’s one of those things where as a baseball player you are presented with random opportunities to do cool stuff, and that was definitely one of them.”

...When asked to critique each other’s dance moves, the A’s players came to a quick conclusion as to who the Bernie master was.

“I’ve got to give it to Coco; he’s got the rhythm,” Blevins said. “He can dance with anything, so he makes any type of dance look good.”

“I think Coco has the best different variations of the Bernie,” Cook said. “Blevins is giving him a run for his money.”