Arizona Wildcats softball: Traditional first-inning songs as Tucson as the woman who sang them

The great Lyle Lovett once introduced a tune as “a cheatin’ song about Mexican food.”
To which I counter, humbly, with a softball column about Linda Ronstadt.
Allow me to gush: there is no tradition on the Arizona Wildcats campus more fantastically obscure, lovely and regionally perfect than the one in its 20th season at Hillenbrand Stadium. 
(Give the silver to the pep band waving to the men’s basketball coach — and, more importantly, him waving back — before tipoff.)
For 601 home games since Hillenbrand opened in 1993, players and fans have heard the same two first-inning Ronstadt songs. They almost faded away last month.
 “A lot of athletes have the ‘Eye of the Tiger,’” said Erika Barnes,  the UA associate athletics director and softball sports supervisor who played from 1998-2001.  “We have Linda Ronstadt.”
When the Wildcats take the field, the public address system blares “Palomita de los Ojos Negros,” a track from the Tucson-born Ronstadt’s 1991 album, “Mas Canciones.”  
The announcer follows with “Juegen pelota” — play ball.
Read more about the Cats' tradition in Thursday's Arizona Daily Star.