'Play La Bamba Baby': Newest giant sign echoes Ben Stelter call to hear Joey Moss' favourite song
'Play La Bamba Baby': Newest giant sign echoes Ben Stelter call to hear Joey Moss' favourite song
"Play La Bamba Baby" is the most recent Oilers cheer to show up in giant orange letters against Edmonton's skyline.
The lettering at the south end of Walterdale Bridge is a show of support for the Edmonton Oilers, who face off against the Calgary Flames Tuesday night for Game 4 of the second round of the playoffs.
The sign also calls to memory the late Joey Moss, the team's former locker room attendant and superfan.
Ritchie Valen's "La Bamba" was Moss' favourite song, and has since been adopted as the Oilers' victory anthem during playoffs.
The phrase "Play 'La Bamba,' baby" is equally special to Oilers fans thanks to five-year-old superfan and official Edmonton Oilers' "playoff ambassador" Ben Stelter.
Stelter has been diagnosed with glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. Throughout the season, Oilers fans have cheered him on as loudly as they have their favourite team.
After every win, Stelter's dad posts a video of him saying, 'Play 'La Bamba,' baby!"
Moss died in 2020 at age 57.
The Oilers' playoff run is the team's first without Moss in the dressing room.
"Joey would just be over the moon right now," his nephew Adam Walker told CTV News Edmonton over the weekend. "He'd be just as nervous as I think we all will be. But, he also knows the Oilers will win."
There are also calls to rename the ICE District Plaza the "Moss Pit."
Giant Oilers numbers have popped up around Alberta's capital city throughout playoffs: first Leon Draisaitl's 29 in Landsdowne, then Connor McDavid's 97 at Whitemud Drive and 145 Street, then Mike Smith's 41 in Belgravia.
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