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The only thing missing to make it feel like a good old-fashioned Red Sox game
was the traditional sound of an organist, maybe playing a short incidental rally
theme to incite the crowd or, as the late John Kiley used to do, a rendition of
"Bicycle Built for Two" or "Mexican Hat Dance."
Nope, instead, as an inning ended, Fenway was filled with blaring rock 'n'
roll. As the Sox headed to the dugout, they were accompanied by The Who
singing "The Kids Are All Right."
Oh, there's an organist at Fenway Park. Throughout the game, Josh Kantor
sits way up in the .406 Club, behind his Yamaha AR100 Electone electronic
organ, wearing headphones, hoping to get the word to play something for the
crowd. But aside from a jaunty version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"
during the seventh inning stretch, a half-hour of songs before the game and 15
minutes more after, Kantor doesn't get to do much. Most of the music at
Fenway is prerecorded, picked out by Megan Kaiser, who's sitting in the
control room, her fingers at the ready to activate a computer system to play
the song of her choice to assist the crowd in enjoying the game.
Because in this day and age, it seems that a ballgame and an organ aren't
enough to keep fans involved. Management in ball parks all over the country
have video screens, a rock soundtrack accompanying portions of the game,
and costumed characters parading through the stands. In fact, most parks
don't even have organists anymore. Other than Boston, there's live organ
music only for the Angels, White Sox, Yankees, Diamondbacks, Rockies and
Cubs.
"Fenway has had the good fortune to slowly modernize," says Cambridge
resident Dr. Charles Steinberg, executive vp/public affairs for the Red Sox,
who oversees, among other departments, ballpark entertainment. "Some of
the ballparks have an urgent, constant music energy level that is not traditional.
It is what those parks feel resonates with those fans. Because Boston has such
ingrained traditions, such appreciation for the organ, which was made extinct
in many other ballparks, you wouldn't think of doing that here."
Steinberg is talking about an hour before game time, so Kantor is playing
up a storm in the .406 Club. He opens his set with "I Can See Clearly Now,"
just as the threatening rain clouds dissipate. Then he does "City of New
Orleans," "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Kodachrome."
"When people are coming in, I'm trying to welcome them to the ballpark,"
says Kantor, who lives in Cambridge. "I play songs that they'll recognize, that
they'll like. The organ evokes a sense of nostalgia, so I try to do that. And I
try to play songs from lots of different eras, so hopefully everyone at the park,
young and old, will hear something they like."
Kantor's day job is reference librarian at the Harvard Law School Library.
At night and on weekends he plays in a variety of groups around town. This is
his second season as Red Sox organist. He's a fan of baseball and of baseball
organists.
"My musical heroes are a lot of the old time ballpark organists, like John
Kiley, who was here for 40 years," he says. "Nancy Bea Hefley and Gladys
Gooding, who were both with the Dodgers for many years, Nancy Faust,
who's been with the White Sox forever. She's fantastic. Eddie Layton, who
was with the Yankees for a long time, was wonderful. That's more the
tradition that I'm accustomed to, where they were responsible for all the
in-game music. But it's a different era now."
Now Newton resident Megan Kaiser plays most of the music. To prove
her hipness factor, just as Oakland comes up to bat, she plays "California
Sun" by the Rivieras. When the Sox are up, she plays Thin Lizzy's "The Boys
Are Back in Town," welcoming them back from a long road trip.
"We have a massive selection of CDs," she says. "Most of them can be
loaded into a computer program, so at the click of a button, I can edit a song
to the exact second where I want it to play."
Kaiser is aided in her job by the fact that players get to pick their own
"theme music" for when they're introduced by Beane.
"It varies from player to player," she says of those themes. "It's like their
signature. Manny (Ramirez) and I don't really have the same taste in music,
but he has one song by Jay-Z called 'Encore' that I really like. Kevin Millar
has varied tastes. He usually sticks to one song for a little bit, then changes it.
He just went from a nice country song, 'My Town,' by Montgomery Gentry,
to 'I Stand Alone' by Godsmack."
When Kaiser picks batting practice music, it's usually songs by the same
artists the players pick for themes. But once the first pitch is thrown, the music
can go in many directions.
"You don't want to play a highly charged song if we're absolutely getting
shelled," she explains. "In a situation like that you would probably play
something that coordinates with the weather or the day or being in a ballpark.
But if we just had a heck of an inning and scored seven runs, you want to play
something that keeps the energy up. You wouldn't drop it down to a Gordon
Lightfoot number, even though I'm a huge fan."
Which explains why she played "The Kids Are All Right" when the Sox
were up 11-0.
"I'm a big Phish fan and they had a lot of great instrumental pieces, which I
use for pitching changes," she adds. "So I'll play 'Tweezer Reprise' and
'Landlady.'"
Though Kaiser is busy for the entirety of games, Kantor is stuck with a lot
of waiting. He sits on his Yamaha bench, looking out over the infield, eating
pretzels, drinking bottled water, writing down names of songs he might play
post-game or the next day.
"If it was up to me I would probably play a little but more," he admits. "But
it's not up to me so I don't worry about it. I still get to play and come to the
ballpark."
He also has a huge audience when he performs "Take Me Out to the
Ballgame," most of whom sing along with his playing, which he follows up on
this night with a snatch of "Working My Way Back to You."
But it's clear that he can't wait to get back to playing at game's end. If the
Sox win, Kaiser will spin either "Dirty Water" by the Standells, the Los
Angeles-based band who sang about the Charles River, or "Tessie," by the
Boston band Dropkick Murphys. If they lose, she'll turn the musical choice
over to Kantor.
"We had a game a couple of weeks ago where we were winning in the late
innings, but ended up losing," recalls Kantor. "The fans were sort of booing
towards the end. So after the last out I played 'Will You Still Love Me
Tomorrow?' I thought that was a mildly humorous way to address the
situation, corny though it may be."
But this night, with one out in the top of the ninth, Kantor is slightly hunched
over his keyboards, his toes pointed down, touching the floor, his legs wiggling
back and forth. As the last notes of "Tessie" go by, he launches into the
upbeat "Build Me Up, Buttercup," watching the keys, bobbing his head
slightly. He segues into "Looking Out My Back Door," then "Mercy Mercy
Mercy," in which he improvises freely.
He's happy for the first time since his pre-game playing. Alas, most of the
crowd is gone and the only people appreciating his work are members of the
ground crew, who are noticeably light in their step.
Red Sox Management can be reached at:
Boston Red Sox
4 Yawkey Way
Boston, MA 02215
was the traditional sound of an organist, maybe playing a short incidental rally
theme to incite the crowd or, as the late John Kiley used to do, a rendition of
"Bicycle Built for Two" or "Mexican Hat Dance."
Nope, instead, as an inning ended, Fenway was filled with blaring rock 'n'
roll. As the Sox headed to the dugout, they were accompanied by The Who
singing "The Kids Are All Right."
Oh, there's an organist at Fenway Park. Throughout the game, Josh Kantor
sits way up in the .406 Club, behind his Yamaha AR100 Electone electronic
organ, wearing headphones, hoping to get the word to play something for the
crowd. But aside from a jaunty version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"
during the seventh inning stretch, a half-hour of songs before the game and 15
minutes more after, Kantor doesn't get to do much. Most of the music at
Fenway is prerecorded, picked out by Megan Kaiser, who's sitting in the
control room, her fingers at the ready to activate a computer system to play
the song of her choice to assist the crowd in enjoying the game.
Because in this day and age, it seems that a ballgame and an organ aren't
enough to keep fans involved. Management in ball parks all over the country
have video screens, a rock soundtrack accompanying portions of the game,
and costumed characters parading through the stands. In fact, most parks
don't even have organists anymore. Other than Boston, there's live organ
music only for the Angels, White Sox, Yankees, Diamondbacks, Rockies and
Cubs.
"Fenway has had the good fortune to slowly modernize," says Cambridge
resident Dr. Charles Steinberg, executive vp/public affairs for the Red Sox,
who oversees, among other departments, ballpark entertainment. "Some of
the ballparks have an urgent, constant music energy level that is not traditional.
It is what those parks feel resonates with those fans. Because Boston has such
ingrained traditions, such appreciation for the organ, which was made extinct
in many other ballparks, you wouldn't think of doing that here."
Steinberg is talking about an hour before game time, so Kantor is playing
up a storm in the .406 Club. He opens his set with "I Can See Clearly Now,"
just as the threatening rain clouds dissipate. Then he does "City of New
Orleans," "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Kodachrome."
"When people are coming in, I'm trying to welcome them to the ballpark,"
says Kantor, who lives in Cambridge. "I play songs that they'll recognize, that
they'll like. The organ evokes a sense of nostalgia, so I try to do that. And I
try to play songs from lots of different eras, so hopefully everyone at the park,
young and old, will hear something they like."
Kantor's day job is reference librarian at the Harvard Law School Library.
At night and on weekends he plays in a variety of groups around town. This is
his second season as Red Sox organist. He's a fan of baseball and of baseball
organists.
"My musical heroes are a lot of the old time ballpark organists, like John
Kiley, who was here for 40 years," he says. "Nancy Bea Hefley and Gladys
Gooding, who were both with the Dodgers for many years, Nancy Faust,
who's been with the White Sox forever. She's fantastic. Eddie Layton, who
was with the Yankees for a long time, was wonderful. That's more the
tradition that I'm accustomed to, where they were responsible for all the
in-game music. But it's a different era now."
Now Newton resident Megan Kaiser plays most of the music. To prove
her hipness factor, just as Oakland comes up to bat, she plays "California
Sun" by the Rivieras. When the Sox are up, she plays Thin Lizzy's "The Boys
Are Back in Town," welcoming them back from a long road trip.
"We have a massive selection of CDs," she says. "Most of them can be
loaded into a computer program, so at the click of a button, I can edit a song
to the exact second where I want it to play."
Kaiser is aided in her job by the fact that players get to pick their own
"theme music" for when they're introduced by Beane.
"It varies from player to player," she says of those themes. "It's like their
signature. Manny (Ramirez) and I don't really have the same taste in music,
but he has one song by Jay-Z called 'Encore' that I really like. Kevin Millar
has varied tastes. He usually sticks to one song for a little bit, then changes it.
He just went from a nice country song, 'My Town,' by Montgomery Gentry,
to 'I Stand Alone' by Godsmack."
When Kaiser picks batting practice music, it's usually songs by the same
artists the players pick for themes. But once the first pitch is thrown, the music
can go in many directions.
"You don't want to play a highly charged song if we're absolutely getting
shelled," she explains. "In a situation like that you would probably play
something that coordinates with the weather or the day or being in a ballpark.
But if we just had a heck of an inning and scored seven runs, you want to play
something that keeps the energy up. You wouldn't drop it down to a Gordon
Lightfoot number, even though I'm a huge fan."
Which explains why she played "The Kids Are All Right" when the Sox
were up 11-0.
"I'm a big Phish fan and they had a lot of great instrumental pieces, which I
use for pitching changes," she adds. "So I'll play 'Tweezer Reprise' and
'Landlady.'"
Though Kaiser is busy for the entirety of games, Kantor is stuck with a lot
of waiting. He sits on his Yamaha bench, looking out over the infield, eating
pretzels, drinking bottled water, writing down names of songs he might play
post-game or the next day.
"If it was up to me I would probably play a little but more," he admits. "But
it's not up to me so I don't worry about it. I still get to play and come to the
ballpark."
He also has a huge audience when he performs "Take Me Out to the
Ballgame," most of whom sing along with his playing, which he follows up on
this night with a snatch of "Working My Way Back to You."
But it's clear that he can't wait to get back to playing at game's end. If the
Sox win, Kaiser will spin either "Dirty Water" by the Standells, the Los
Angeles-based band who sang about the Charles River, or "Tessie," by the
Boston band Dropkick Murphys. If they lose, she'll turn the musical choice
over to Kantor.
"We had a game a couple of weeks ago where we were winning in the late
innings, but ended up losing," recalls Kantor. "The fans were sort of booing
towards the end. So after the last out I played 'Will You Still Love Me
Tomorrow?' I thought that was a mildly humorous way to address the
situation, corny though it may be."
But this night, with one out in the top of the ninth, Kantor is slightly hunched
over his keyboards, his toes pointed down, touching the floor, his legs wiggling
back and forth. As the last notes of "Tessie" go by, he launches into the
upbeat "Build Me Up, Buttercup," watching the keys, bobbing his head
slightly. He segues into "Looking Out My Back Door," then "Mercy Mercy
Mercy," in which he improvises freely.
He's happy for the first time since his pre-game playing. Alas, most of the
crowd is gone and the only people appreciating his work are members of the
ground crew, who are noticeably light in their step.
Red Sox Management can be reached at:
Boston Red Sox
4 Yawkey Way
Boston, MA 02215
| Pump it up: At Fenway, traditional pipes have become a non-essential organ CNC, July 30, 2004 By Ed Symkus |
On a recent warm night, the Red Sox were dominating Oakland
in Fenway Park, where 35,000-plus fans, players and workers
contributed to the park's "natural sound." There was a constant
quiet roar in the crowd.
One vendor called out "Peanuts!" while another shouted, "Get
your popcorn heah!" There was a ripple of applause when Scott
Hatteberg popped up, that grew to an ovation when Doug
Mirabelli caught it. Later there was a collective groan when Mark
Bellhorn swung hard at a fastball and missed. And there was the
deep, rich voice of Carl Beane introducing each player.Get your
popcorn heah!"
in Fenway Park, where 35,000-plus fans, players and workers
contributed to the park's "natural sound." There was a constant
quiet roar in the crowd.
One vendor called out "Peanuts!" while another shouted, "Get
your popcorn heah!" There was a ripple of applause when Scott
Hatteberg popped up, that grew to an ovation when Doug
Mirabelli caught it. Later there was a collective groan when Mark
Bellhorn swung hard at a fastball and missed. And there was the
deep, rich voice of Carl Beane introducing each player.Get your
popcorn heah!"
