SAN FRANCISCO — There’s a giant glove and a Coca-Cola slide, a stand that sells garlic fries and another peddling Panda hats. There’s a cove that softly catches homers and an alley that kills others, a “Journey” filled soundtrack and a victory cigar in the form of a Tony Bennett song.

AT&T Park has as many quirks as any in the majors, and new left fielder Michael Morse is hoping to add another one. When Morse comes to the plate for the third time in home games, fans will be treated to “Take On Me” by A-ha, a Norwegian pop band that briefly topped the charts in the ’80s.

Why does Morse, often replaced by a better defender late in games, wait for the third at-bat?

“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!’ “

Morse said he started using the song in 2008 or 2009, and he stuck with it because it was so beloved — from fans all the way up to Nationals ownership. Morse has always used it as his third song, and not just for adult-beverage-inspired reasons. Fans aren’t settled into their seats early in the game, and, Morse said with a smile, he wants there to “be something big going on in the game.” In the pressure of the late innings, with a game — and in October of 2012, the season — on the line, Morse’s walk-up song strikes with predictably cheesy lyrics. (It was recorded in 1984 after all.)

“Take on me (take on me)

Take me on (take on me)

I’ll be gone

In a day or two.”

The phenomenon hit its highest note in the 2012 postseason, when Morse and the Nationals hosted the St. Louis Cardinals. TBS cameras caught then-teammates Bryce Harper and Jayson Werth singing along with the crowd and a Washington Post reporter even managed to track down members of A-ha.

“That’s fantastic,” guitarist-keyboardist Magne Furuholmen told the newspaper via email. “This song has done the rounds, but I never heard of it engaging the audience in this way.”

Morse said he was told the band was going to come and play the song at Nationals Park if Washington had advanced. A four-run Cardinals rally in the top of the ninth inning of Game 5 scuttled that possibility and ended Morse’s Nationals career. His final at-bat for the franchise, though, proved to be one of his most memorable.

With the Nationals leading 6-5 in the bottom of the eighth, Adam LaRoche hit a single to right. Morse walked to the plate to face Cardinals closer Jason Motte. On the broadcast, you can’t even hear the words from a song that topped the Billboard Top 100 chart 27 years earlier.

“In the postseason, they literally would play the song for maybe four seconds and then turn it off,” Morse said Sunday. “The fans would take over.”

A sellout crowd did on that night.

“Take on me (take on me),

Take me on (take on me)

I’ll be gone

In a day or two.”

The first pitch from Motte was a 96 mph fastball. Morse took a huge cut and lined it into center field for a single.