Remember When... Music and Baseball

By Lee Mrowicki
originally published: 06/23/2023

There was a time when the only music you heard at a Major League ballpark was organ music and the songs were all classic sing-a-longs.

But then came the walk-up song. First instance of walk-up songs was in the 70’s by Chicago White Sox organist Nancy Faust, who played the home state song for each of the players in the Sox line-up.

The organist was the one person whose job was to get the crowd going and support their team by way of certain songs. Nowadays all the Major League ballparks virtually all use the same songs to get the crown going. Songs like “I Can Make You Clap Your Hands” by Fitz & the Tantrums, the “Charge!” sequence, the line from Mr. C’s Cha Cha Slide, “Everybody Clap Your Hands!”, “Day-O” by Harry Belafonte and others.

Now don’t get me started on the walk-up or walk-in songs, the most famous of all being  “Enter Sandman” by Metallica adopted by former NY Yankee reliever great Mariano Rivera. When you heard the intro to Sandman, you knew there was a better than good chance Mariano comes in to close out the game for the Yankees. But... do you remember that another former Yankee great reliever and former Somerset Patriots manager Sparky Lyle had “Pomp and Circumstance” for his song? Yup, Pomp and Circumstance!

How about former Yankee and Cincinnati Red Paul O’Neill, now one of the best commentators around… he used the Who’s “Baba O’Reilly”!

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Yankee catcher Kyle Higashioka uses “I Was Made For Lovin’ Her” by KISS.

The whole purpose is the get the player motivated and up for the challenge facing him with someone throwing 95 mile per hour fastballs and wicked sliders at him.

So what about “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”??? It was written by a guy riding the NYC subway, Jack Norworth, who was inspired by signs that said “Ballgame Today – Polo Grounds.” where the NY Giants played (before the move to San Francisco---and where the NY Mets first started playing.) The song revolves around an invitation to a date to a Broadway play... but the lady accepts the date only if her beau “takes her out to a ballgame” instead.

It was first played in 1934 at a high school game in Los Angeles and made its first appearance in a Major League ballpark when it was played that same year during game 4 of the World Series.

It has become a tradition in ballparks all over the country, but none more so than at the “friendly confines” of Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs. The famed Cubs announcer Harry Caray used to lead the crowd with his famous rendition of the song with the intro of “Uh One, Uh Two, Uh Three!!!”. When Harry passed away, a multitude of famous Cubs’ fans took over for Harry, including Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and the inimitable song stylings of huge Cubs’ fan Bill Murray, who once told the crown that the only acceptable way to sing the song was to do it as Daffy Duck... spitting syllables and all!

The organ has been for years one of the only instruments that is used in ballparks...well, some just use keyboards to add some flash to the music played between innings. These days, recorded music like Springsteen’s “Glory Days” are hugely popular. But the organ lives on as the preferred instrument in most ballparks. Have you hear the organist at Dodger Stadium start off playing In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida for a few bars then break into the Charge!!!! music. Inventive, but annoying to say the least.

The story is told about the NY Yankees getting delivery of a brand new organ during George Steinbrenner’s reign as Yankee owner. The organ was delivered and Eddie Layton, the well known Yankee organist at the time, said to Mr. Steinbrenner how he would really love to hear what the organ sounds like out in the stands...almost impossible he thought until Mr. Steinbrenner told Eddie to go outside and listen. Mr. Steinbrenner, little be it known to anyone, was an accomplished organ player and played his brand new organ for the Yankee organist, Eddie Layton. Won’t wonders never cease.

(By the way, Eddie Layton played the organ in Yankee Stadium for almost 40 years, having been introduced to the organ while in the Navy stationed at Lakehurst Naval Air Station).

By the way, the first organ was played on April 26, 1941 at Wrigley Field in Chicago by Ray Nelson.

And still to this day, enjoyed by baseball fans everywhere.

Oh, what about beer you ask??? Beer and music certainly go together, right? Well, on the eve of the upcoming baseball season, then President Franklin D. Roosevelt hosted Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith and National League President John Heydler and asked them if beer would be available tomorrow at the game. How’s that for a Ballantine Blast, baseball fans!

About the author:

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Lee Mrowicki was nicknamed 'The Voice of the Stone Pony' by Rolling Stone Magazine and has been associated with the legendary Asbury Park club and the rock and roll city for decades. He currently can be heard each week spinning the best of New Jersey music with Radio Jersey. He writes an ongoing series entitled, 'Remember When'.