All posts by Matthew Callan

Warm Thoughts for a Cold Winter

Warm Thoughts for a Cold Winter: Organ Music

janejarvis.jpgLast week, Jane Jarvis passed away at the age of 94. Jarvis was Shea Stadium’s first organist, from 1964 all the way through 1979. She’s still remembered by fans who heard her as a delightful and witty practitioner of that uniquely American art form, stadium organ music. Marty Noble wrote a remembrance of her, and shared the tidbit that during the 1977 blackout, Jarvis entertained the sweltering Shea crowd with such ironic song selections as “White Christmas” and “Jingle Bells”

I’m not old enough to have enjoyed Ms. Jarvis’ stylings, but I do miss ballpark organists. Most MLB teams still have an organist, but their playing time has reduced significantly in favor of prerecorded music instead, which is a shame. Both New York teams still have organists, but I can not tell you the last time I actually heard one play at either stadium.

I’m not too old school when it comes to most things in baseball; I think the game is more often hurt by its emphasis on tradition than it is helped. But there are two points where I see eye-to-eye with the Get Off My Lawn crowd: the DH is an abomination, and stadium organists are vastly superior to any other form of in-game entertainment.

In the long history of baseball, organs are a relatively recent feature of the game experience. The first stadium organ didn’t appear until 1941, when the Cubs installed one in Wrigley Field, and they didn’t really catch on elsewhere until after World War II. But the organ has become a sound as associated with the game as the crack of a bat. Playing “charge!” on an organ is musical shorthand for “there is a baseball game being played right now”.

I have a feeling that the almost exclusive use of prerecorded music is a relatively recent phenomenon, one that crept slowly into the game in the last 15 years or so. While compiling The 1999 Project, I listened to and watched a whole bunch of games from that season, and noticed that Shea was still very organ-centric back then. Pitchers and batters entered the game to their own hand-picked tunes, but all other musical cues came from an organ.

In that spirit, please enjoy this video about Lambert Bartak, the man who has manned the organ for the college world series for the last 50+ years.

Seasonal Fare

Groundhog Day Fun Facts!

  • groundhog.jpgGroundhog Day was developed by Punxsutawney, PA in a desperate attempt to employ its notoriously shiftless rodent population.
  • The holiday dates back to a dark time in American history, when only groundhogs were allowed to study meteorology.
  • If the groundhog sees emerges from its hole, expect an early spring. If he sees his shadow and goes back into his hole, there will be six more weeks of winter. If he scratches his nose, we skip the rest of winter, spring, and summer and head straight into autumn. And if he eats a small, juicy carrot, pray for your mortal soul, for the end is nigh.
  • Did you know the ancient Egyptians revered the groundhog as a god? You shouldn’t have known that, because it’s not true.
  • In 1943, Punxsutawney Phil became involved in an elaborate OSS-sponsored plot to assassinate Hitler. The plan never came to fruition, however, because the spy agency couldn’t figure out how to get the Fuhrer to visit Pennsylvania.
  • The officiants at Groundhog Day dress in turn-of-the-century garb not for ceremonial purposes, but as part of an elaborate fetishistic ritual whose details you are better off not knowing.
  • February 2 is also the day when Bill Murray reminds everyone who approaches him that if they ask him about nothing but Groundhog Day, they’ll get a roundhouse kick to the throat.
Football

Rex Ryan “Apologizes”

Thumbnail image for rexryan.jpgI am TRULY sorry for flipping off someone at an MMA fight in Miami this weekend. That behavior was unacceptable and I’m sorry if I EMBARRASSED the Jets organization.

Yes, it was wrong of me to attend a private event and be heckled by drunk idiots all night. In the future, I will be more careful about being in the presence of inebriated, foul-mouthed morons for extended periods of time.

Sure, extending my middle finger to someone was probably the least offensive thing occurring in that arena at the time, as I sat 50 feet away from two men beating each other mercilessly in a quote-unquote sport that’s one step removed from bum fights. Not to mention that one of those men was a retired running back whose presence turned an already sordid event into a full-blown freak show.

But hey, none of that makes what I did any less wrong. Nor does the Daily News and Post sanctimoniously tsk-tsking me for my “shocking” actions, while also putting a picture of said shocking action on their front pages. Not to mention that one of those papers has no problem running a regular advice column penned by a former hooker. No, their rampant hypocrisy does not excuse what I did.

Finally, I want to make it clear that my apology is completely sincere, despite the fact that I’ve been making an exaggerated jerk-off gesture the entire time I delivered it.