Where did the very first "wave" get started?

ESPN claims to have the answer. Here's part of an article that appeared on February 27, 2013:


...the origin stories of The Wave are as prevalent and well documented as Sasquatch sightings.

In the U.K. and the rest of the world The Wave is called the "Mexican Wave" because viewers across the globe first noticed it in televised games of the 1986 World Cup from Mexico. Clearly, however, The Wave was born earlier.

In fact, five years earlier in Oakland and then Seattle.

Tales of The Wave breaking before those dates may forever circulate and may one day be verified, but for now most have been debunked.

The first recorded Wave occurred in Oakland at an Athletics' playoff game against the New York Yankees on Oct. 15, 1981.

It was organized and led by professional cheerleader Krazy George Henderson and was seen by a national TV audience and captured on film. Sixteen days later on Halloween at the University of Washington in Seattle, former UW cheerleader Robb Weller -- back for a game as guest yell leader -- led fans in a Wave at Husky Stadium during the school's 42-31 victory over Stanford.

From there The Wave spread into every stadium, park and arena across the globe. Thirty-one years later it's still alive (to the joy of many and dismay of some), and recently even took on a royal hue as Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge and British Prime Minister David Cameron were caught doing The Wave at the velodrome during the Olympics in London.

Krazy George and the University of Washington feuded for years as to who started The Wave, but The Wave of evidence is in George's favor.

After all, Oct. 15 comes before the 31st, and the shots of Oakland fans doing The Wave -- with Krazy George as their conductor -- are on the A's highlight film for 1981, says the team.

Says Krazy George, 68, who now lives in Maryland: "I don't claim I invented The Wave. I didinvent The Wave."

• • •

The Debunking

Perhaps there were fans somewhere before Oct. 15, 1981, who thought it would be a cool idea to stand up in unison with their arms extended and start a rippling Wave around and around a stadium.

Perhaps. But other origin myths before that date simply don't hold up.

For instance:

Pacific Lutheran University: A story has circulated that a cheerleader at a basketball game in the early '60s started The Wave at the school in Tacoma, yet two longtime employees -- one who worked there starting in 1964 -- say they've never heard of it.

Montreal Olympics of 1976: Says Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette, who covered those Games: "I was at the two venues where you might have seen a Wave (the stadium and the Forum for basketball games) and there wasn't a ripple."

Vancouver Whitecaps/Seattle Sounders: Supposedly, fans for these teams did The Wave in the late '70s. Not so, says current Whitecaps President Bob Lenarduzzi, who played for Vancouver back then, and David Falk, a NASL historian who had season tickets to the Sounders in the late '70s and also was at the Huskies game in 1981 when the Weller-led Washington Wave "rolled and rolled." "The Sounders and all of Seattle sports ... embraced it, but after 1981," says Falk.

Michigan basketball: "Not at all," says Bruce Madej, the longtime Wolverines associate athletic director, when asked if The Wave was done at Crisler Arena in the '70s. The first time The Wave hit Ann Arbor was in 1983, he says, after Michigan played the Huskies in Seattle.

• • •

The Evolution

Like Johnny Appleseed, Krazy George Henderson planted The Wave wherever he went after that A's game in 1981. But George says The Wave didn't suddenly spring up out of thin air that October day in Oakland.

"It took me three years of different forms and modifying it and changing and evolving till it got to the Oakland A's game," he says. And, actually, when he explains it, the seeds were planted more than a decade before when he was a cheerleader at San Jose State.

• • •

Back then, about 1970, he says he did a section cheer for the student body that involved one section standing up and yelling "San," the next standing and yelling "Jose" and a third doing the same thing with "State."

"It looked dynamic to see these three full sections go San ... Jose ... State," he says. "And it would go five or six times in a row. ... That cheer was like the nucleus at the start of the idea of a Wave type of idea."

After college he worked as a teacher for several years, but then Krazy George became a professional cheerleader, and he expanded on the San Jose State cheer with teams such as the minor league hockey Colorado Rockies in the late 1970s. Though the crowds were sometimes small, on big nights he could get fans to stand up by sections yelling "Go ... Rockies ... Go," but the crowd often lost interest. But when he just had sections stand up in Waves yelling "Go!" he could spark a cheer that "went all the way around the arena."

The next step in the evolution, he says, came in 1980 when he went to a high school rally in Santa Clara in the Bay Area at the request of a friend, and -- by standing at midcourt and turning and pointing to students -- sparked them to stand up in a Wave that went all the way around the small gym.

"I pointed at them, all 360 degrees, which was a pure Wave," he recalls.

That episode, he remembers, was on his mind that day at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in 1981 when he decided to start a Wave at the A's-Yankees game.

"I never planned anything," he says, laughing. "I don't know why it hit me. About the second inning, I said, ‘I want to try this thing.'"

He says he started by organizing three adjacent sections to start The Wave on his signal, but "it took me three or four tries," for it to catch on.

"It finally took off and it went all the way around and just kept going and going and the crowd went nuts," he recalls.

At later events, Henderson says he'd rarely do The Wave more than once per game. But that day, he led it three times.

"All three tiers were doing it," he says. "It was amazing."

After that Oakland A's game he took The Wave on the road -- although he didn't call it that.

"There was no name for it," he says. "In fact, I'll give Seattle credit if they want credit for naming The Wave."

He took it to a British Columbia Lions Canadian Football League game soon after, as well as a Houston Oilers game. And, he did The Wave at Olympic soccer games in 1984, which helped introduce it to the rest of the world.


• • •

The Wave's Spread

Though Krazy George lays claim to being the first with The Wave, Jeff Bechthold, the University of Washington's director of communications for athletics, calls the issue a "little complex."

As yell leader at the school in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Weller had led several cheers that were Wave-like --- "a section at a time standing up and sitting down (rather than ‘rolling')," Bechthold writes -- and what Weller and Husky band director Bill Bissell did that Halloween day in 1981 built off those earlier efforts, he says.

So, just as Krazy George's ideas evolved leading up to his 1981 Wave, so had Washington's. Even with that, however, Krazy George comes out the chronological winner in the "documented Wave" division.

However, The Wave's biggest springboard proved to be the University of Washington.

After the game with Stanford, The Wave became a staple at Huskies games and was taken back to campuses across the country by visiting cheerleaders. At the same time, other Seattle teams -- notably the Seahawks and Sounders -- adopted it.

After Michigan played at Washington in 1983, Wolverines fans fell in love with The Wave at Michigan Stadium, says UM's Madej. At Michigan, fans developed all sorts of twists to it such as slow-motion Waves, reverse Waves and silent Waves.

"It created more fun," says Madej. And, with the huge crowds at "The Big House" in a completely enclosed stadium, it was a perfect showpiece for The Wave as it grew into an '80s sports phenomenon and traveling to Mexico -- where it is called "La Ola" -- in time for the 1986 World Cup.

Krazy George says The Wave has lasted this long because it raises the crowd's energy and it's fun.

"You get The Wave going, you set it up, and it goes four, five, six times (around the stadium), it raises the energy of the crowd," he says. "They get more behind it. They think they've accomplished something with the team. They express themselves with the team, how they feel about them. It makes all my other cheers after I do The Wave, louder, more intense. And I can build off that."

Of course there are some fans (and many in the sports media) who despise it, saying it takes away from what's going on in the game and it's often done at the wrong time. There's even a website and campaign against it called StoptheWave.net that has led to some large Stop The Wave signs at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Krazy George, however, just Waves off the no-Wavers.

"Here's my theory," he says, laughing. "I love saying this. For The Wave to go and look great, you've got to have 98 percent of the people participating. That means 98 percent of the people like The Wave. They're having fun."

These days, Krazy George is still doing occasional cheerleading gigs, writing a book about his career and is always ready to defend his status as the first person to lead a verified, documented, caught-on-camera Wave.

"Now anybody can claim that (they did one) before that, but there's no witnesses, there's no video, there's no nothing," he says. "There's just nobody can substantiate any kind of claim before that."

Read the entire article...

How the St. Louis Blues reclaimed the old arena organ

Doing some prep for my Algonquin College Sports Business Management class this week, where we're talking about the role of music in sports. Found this interesting article about how the St. Louis Blues re-acaquired the original stadium organ.  This article appeared on CBSSports.com in January, 2013.

For a franchise with an identity so closely tied to music, the St. Louis Blues organization must have been overjoyed when it reclaimed an important piece of its musical heritage.

Chris Kerber, the radio voice of the Blues, tweeted Tuesday that the team had reacquired the organ that used to fill old St. Louis Arena with its upbeat melodies and St. Louis staple When The Saints Go Marching In.

 According to team COO Bruce Affleck, he had received a message from an old family neighbor who was in possession of the same organ that long-time organist Ernie Hayes used to play at Blues home games.

"His dad ended up with the organ, not sure how," Affleck explained in an email to CBSSports.com.

"The message said, 'Bruce, this is Bob Dienstbach and I just wanted you to know we are putting this organ Ernie Hays used to play at the old Arena on Craigslist.' "

Seeing an opportunity to reclaim this important piece of team history, Affleck jumped into action. "I called right away and left him a message and said we would buy it sight unseen, which we did," Affleck said. He did not disclose the amount paid.

According to a Jan. 3 report from KPLR in St. Louis, Dienstbach listed the organ online for $1,000.

 The organ was delivered to the Blues on Tuesday.

 Also according to the KPLR story, Dienstbach and reporter Patrick Clark inadvertently uncovered a floppy disk and hand-written notes in the organ's seat. The disk included original music they believed to be recorded by Hayes, which is playable from the organ.

 According to Affleck, the team's current organist, Jeremy Boyer, was a protégé of Hayes'. The former organist was a St. Louis institution, playing for both the Blues and Cardinals for many years. Hayes passed away last October at the age of 77.

 UPDATE: According to team spokesman Rich Jankowski, Hayes' old organ will not be replacing the one currently in Scottrade Center, but the plan is to "use it at some point." Now that the instrument that helped make Hayes a local legend is back in the rotation, fans can think back to the days when the in-game entertainment consisted of the hockey on the ice and the organ music in the air.
 

Bill Veeck's 1964 vision of "The Perfect Ballpark"

This was posted earlier today on J.W. Cannon's Twitter feed. He says it's from a 1964 edition of Popular Science. 

"How Bill Veeck Would Build The Perfect Ball Park".
Foam cushion seats! A retractable dome! Giant scoreboard and tv screen!

(Click for full size.)

Legendary PA announcer Budd Lynch still types his game notes

This is awesome.

Budd Lynch is the PA announcer for the Detroit Red Wings.  He's 94 years old. And here's a photo of his game notes from the other night.

Photo posted with kind permission of Ayron.

Video: The original Chicago Bears mascot

Here's a great mini-doc from 1970 about George Motica, the guy who dressed up as the original Chicago Bears mascot. After you watch this video, you'll see why most sports mascots aren't allowed to talk.

(via Your Mascot Sucks)

Video: Astrodome Scoreboard Memories

Not sure exactly what this is or where it came from. The person who posted it to YouTube writes: "this was @ the Astrodome In Houston Texas this was from the Scoreboard... Lots of Memories. I hope you enjoy.... from 1965 to 1988. I hope you will Enjoy the Video."

Can anyone give any more info?



See also: Astros Home Run Sequence

Dandy, the long-lost mascot of the New York Yankees

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on Dandy, the one-time mascot of the New York Yankees:

From 1979 to 1981, the Yankees employed a mascot named Dandy. He was big and blue and a spectacular failure—a historical oddity for a proud franchise that has collected 27 world championships but would just as soon forget he even existed.

"It's one of the sadder stories," said Wayde Harrison, who created Dandy with his wife, Bonnie Erickson.

In 1979, the Yankees appeared eager to replicate the success of the Phillie Phanatic, the green, pot-bellied mascot that Mr. Harrison and Ms. Erickson created in 1978. In his first two years of existence, according to Mr. Harrison, Phanatic-related products generated $2 million in revenue—and his popularity has not waned.

...

Want to know whom to blame for Dandy's premature demise? Look no further than the San Diego Chicken and Lou Piniella.

On July 10, 1979, the Chicken—on sabbatical from the Padres, his regular employer—was working for the Seattle Mariners at the Kingdome, where he threw a hex on Yankees pitcher Ron Guidry as he warmed up. Mr. Piniella, the Yankees' left fielder at the time, considered this to be in poor taste, so he chased the Chicken and, lacking apparent success, fired his glove at him in a fit of rage.

In the wake of that fiasco, Mr. Steinbrenner supported Mr. Piniella by telling reporters that mascots had no place in baseball—this, just two weeks before the Yankees were to introduce their own.

Read the entire article...

Dandy looks like a long-lost cousin of Youppi!, and not coincidentally they were both created by Acme Mascots.

Minor league baseball team to recreate Eddie Gaedel at-bat

Darren Rovell reports:

One minor league team is intent on re-living Eddie Gaedel’s moment.

On Aug. 19, the independent River City Rascals will recreate the famous moment as part of its “Salute to Bill Veeck and St. Louis Baseball History Night.”

In honor of the 59th anniversary of the famous stunt where the St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck sent the 3-foot-7 little person to bat against the Detroit Tigers, the team says it has signed a person who is “barely over four feet” to re-enact the moment in the bottom of the first inning.

As an added touch, the small person the Rascals hired will wear a 1/8th jersey, just like Gaedel had worn that night.

Funderburg said that the team will give away 27 items, one for each out the opposing team makes, from 1951. The biggest prize is an authentic autograph of Frank Saucier, the man who Gaedel replaced that day.

The team says it has extended an invitation to St. Louis Cardinals president Bill DeWitt, who happened to be the bat boy for the game where Gaedel came to the plate.

Funderburg hopes the re-creation goes off without a hitch, but admits that he has no control over what the pitcher for the Oakland County Cruisers, the opposing team that night, does. Gaedel famously walked on four pitches that flew over his head.

Said Funderburg: “They agreed that they would work with us. But I’m still afraid they are going throw at him.”

Read the entire article...

Mental Floss: 100 Years of Scoreboard Watching

Here's a great post from the mental_floss Blog, chronicling the technical evolution of video scoreboards over the past century or so. The article is full of great photos, and here are some highlights:

In 1908, Chicago inventor George A. Baird developed an electric baseball scoreboard that recorded balls, strikes, and outs. While Baird’s invention was tested by Boston’s two major league clubs, it didn’t immediately catch on across the league. Team owners were hesitant to provide information to fans for fear that it would cut into the sale of scorecards, but the electric scoreboard signaled an eventual shift in the in-game experience at stadiums and arenas. Over the next two decades, manually operated scoreboards evolved to feature more information than the score. Lineups with player names and numbers were displayed, along with scores and pitchers’ numbers from games around the league...

When Yankee Stadium opened in 1923, it featured a large manually operated scoreboard in right field that was visible to every spectator in the park. In 1950, the Yankees unveiled an electric scoreboard that the team called “the most efficient scoreboard ever built and, in general, a big stride forward.” The Yankees’ new scoreboard was operated by two men as opposed to five and featured a non-glare enamel covering...

Before the 1959 season, the Yankees made another upgrade, installing the first scoreboard to feature a changeable message display. The New York Times, which dubbed the new scoreboard “the electronic miracle,” provided the specifics: “The board will contain 11,210 lamps with a wattage of 115,000, 619,000 feet of electric cable, will weigh 25 tons (not including the steel supporting structure), will have more than 4,860 push buttons on the master control console and will have a total face area of 4,782 square feet.”

Wrigley Field’s iconic 89-foot scoreboard was built in 1937 under the direction of flamboyant club treasurer and future White Sox owner Bill Veeck, whose father was team president until he died in 1933. Most of the original Wrigley Field scoreboard, which still stands today, is manually operated, but the batter’s number, balls, strikes, and outs are displayed electronically in the center portion of the board. The original control panel is still in use.

“What’s baseball coming to?”
That’s what former White Sox manager Jimmy Dykes asked after Comiskey Park’s exploding scoreboard, which featured multi-colored pinwheels and shot off fireworks after every home run by a Chicago player, was unveiled in 1960. “All I know is that if I was a pitcher whose home run ball had started that Fourth of July celebration, I’d fire my next pitch at the head of the next hitter,” Dykes told a reporter. While some opponents resented the extravagant display, which was another one of Veeck’s ideas, the unique scoreboard design was retained when Chicago’s current stadium opened in 1991.

Bigger and Better
When the Houston Astrodome opened in 1965, its 474-foot wide scoreboard was the largest in all of sports. The scoreboard featured 50,000 lights that erupted in a 45-second animated display of cowboys, ricocheting bullets, flags, steers, and fireworks after every Astros home run or victory. The display was set to a soundtrack that included “The Eyes of Texas.”

Diamond Vision
The Los Angeles Dodgers unveiled a $3 million, 875-square foot video board at the 1980 All-Star Game. Mitsubishi’s Diamond Vision, which enabled operators to show replays using a VCR, was the first video board of its kind and a sign of things to come. Similar video boards soon became standard in stadiums and arenas, as the resolution and functionality of the screens improved and Sony entered the market with its popular JumboTron. In 2009, the Dallas Cowboys unveiled the world’s largest high-definition video display, an LED scoreboard developed by Mitsubishi.
Other Iconic Baseball Scoreboards

Read the entire article...

Baseball's Hall of Fame honours "Centerfield" song

Here's a report from the Rolling Stone about the upcoming induction of John Fogerty's "Centerfield" into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It's the first song to be inducted. (I'm surprised "Take Me Out To the Ball Game" hasn't been honoured.)

For over a decade, "Centerfield" has been a staple anthem at baseball games and every Hall of Fame induction... Fogerty is set to perform the song at the induction ceremony, held in Cooperstown, New York on July 25th. To celebrate the event, Fogerty is also releasing a remastered version of the album Centerfield, featuring a pair of rare B-sides from the era ("My Toot Toot," "I Confess"), on June 29th.

...When Fogerty wrote "Centerfield" in the ‘80s, he says he was inspired by the self-created lore of the position. "When I was eight or nine, I decided that it was the most hallowed turf in the universe was centerfield in Yankee Stadium," he says. "Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle — I mean, those two had such remarkable careers. It seemed like only the greatest had to be in centerfield." When he finally released the song in '85, he was nervous that he'd be criticized for attempting to combine his two passions (baseball and rock & roll) into one track. "I really kind of braced myself for flack as it was getting ready to be released," he recalls. "I thought, 'Wow. It has never worked out in history.' But I thought to myself that I really liked this song!"

Read the entire article...

A bunch of baseball organ videos and links

Cleaning up the bookmark file, thought I would share some of these vids and articles for posterity.

• The Ballpark Organists
  From BallParkTour.com, a listing of the organists for each MLB team. Interesting that baseball organists tend to be older than hockey organists. And also several women who play for MLB teams.
  
• Vince Lascheid, well-known organist, dies
  This is an obit for the legendary Pittsburgh sports organist, who played for the Penguins, Pirates and Steelers. In one of those "wish I had a camera" moments, I saw his organ booth at PNC Park a few years ago. Wish I could have taken a picture of his hand-written notes and scores that were propped up on the organ, listing cues for various Pirates players past & present.
• Interview with Sue Nelson, organist for the Minnesota Twins
  Love seeing her play those big "LETS GO TWINS" chords.
• Baseball's Timeless Tradition
  Lambert Bartak has been playing the organ at the College World Series for 50 years. Love that they got a shot of him playing the pedals with sock feet -- not an uncommon thing but something you rarely see on video. (And he accompanied Johnny Carson many decades ago when he was still just a magician.)
  
• L.A. Dodgers organist Nancy Bea performing pre-game
• Bob Sheppard/Eddie Layton Tribute...Remembering Yankee Stadium
  First time I've ever seen a guy who does "impressions" of a stadium organist
  

A bunch of hockey organ videos

1: Calgary Flames organist Rickrolls at the 'Dome.


2: Real Men of Genius - Mr. Professional Hockey Organ Player


3: James Michael Day - San Jose Sharks organist


4: Jack Moelmann - Chicago Stadium Barton Organ - 1994 (just before they tore the old Chicago Stadium down)


5: Chicago Stadium Barton Organ Removal - Part 1 of 3

How Roger Doucet wrote the Soviet National Anthem

One of my fave blogs these days is Greatest Hockey Legends. Every day they post a great piece about some nugget of hockey history -- both on-ice and off-ice. Recently they posted this piece about Roger Doucet, the legendary anthem singer of the Montreal Canadiens.

In the summer of 1976 Doucet was asked to sing the national anthems at the new Canada Cup tournament. He was familiar with the American and of course Canadian anthems, but needed to learn the songs of the four European countries.

He contacted the Department of External Affairs and they easily got him the lyrics for Sweden, Finland and Czechoslovakia, but there was a problem with the Soviet Union anthem - there were no words!

It seems the original words in The Hymn Of The Soviet Union were quietly dropped after 1956 because of all the references to dictator Josef Stalin. Doucet was advised to "hum the anthem very loudly."

That didn't sit too well with the proud singer. Somehow he unearthed a copy of the Stalinist lyrics. Since he could not spead or read Russian, he handed it to the Russian department at the University of Montreal, and asked them to "fix them up."

Before the Soviet Union-Czechslovakia game at the Canada Cup, Doucet showed Soviet team officials the rewritten lyrics. They had no objections, and Doucet sang the all new Hymn of the Soviet Union. With the game being broadcasted back home, the Russian fans must have been shocked to hear the new anthem.

In 1977 the Soviet Parliament adopted the new lyrics.

Read the entire article...

Last game at the Igloo

Great video showing the pre-game ceremony for the final regular season game at the Igloo. I liked how they brough the alumni out in groups - rather than bring them out one by one. It moved the ceremony along a bit faster, and it was a more creative way of highlighting different eras in Penguins history.

From the history vaults: 1934 pre-game ceremony for King Clancy

Should have posted this last week, closer to St. Patrick's Day.... GreatestHockeyLegends.com has a great look back at a March 17, 1934 pre-game ceremony that the Toronto Maple Leafs held to honour King Clancy. He was presented with a green wool sweater with a shamrock on the back.

While the rest of the Leafs wore their familiar blue, King Clancy wore this very special outfit for the first period. In the second and third Clancy had to return to his normal jersey as Lester Patrick, coach of the opposing New York Rangers, complained about the alternate jersey on the ice...

The Leafs were hosting "King Clancy Night." Clancy was as big a star as Toronto has ever seen. They honored him with the night, the jersey, and a number of stereotypical gifts that would keep any Irish eyes smiling.

Several junior players stepped on to the ice through large potato props. Red Horner emerged from a boxing glove. New York Ranger's star Bill Cook hid in a shamrock. All the while the Knights of Columbus Minstrel Band played Irish music.

But the highlight of the night was when Clancy was introduced to the sold out arena. There has never been anything quite like it in sports before or since.

Here's Clancy's own memories of the event:

When my turn finally came, the lights were all turned out and, dressed in royal robes and wearing a crown, I was ushered in on a big throne pulled by Hap Day. As the float reached the middle of the rink, I got hit in the face with a handful of soot from (Hap) Day and (Charlie) Conacher. When the lights came on, I looked like Santa Claus but my face was pitch black. It took me two or three days to get that stuff off."

Read the entire article (with photos)...

(via Kukla's Korner)

New York Times article about New Jersey Devils organist

Nice article about Pete Cannarozzi, the arena organist for the New Jersey Devils: Devils’ Organist Remains Part of Arena’s Rhythm. Some highlights from the article:

Hockey was once played to the sole accompaniment of an organ: the mighty Barton, its pipes built into the walls of the old Chicago Stadium; Gladys Gooding playing “Rangers Victory Song” at the old Madison Square Garden; Paul Newman storming into the booth of the Charlestown Chiefs’ arena in the film “Slap Shot” to tear up the sheet music and demand of the organist, “Don’t ever play ‘Lady of Spain’ again!”

...

“I am absolutely a firm believer in what the organ means to hockey,” said Lou Lamoriello, the Devils’ general manager. “It adds so much atmosphere and flavor. Younger fans want rock music, videos, and we accommodate them. But I hope we never lose sight of the traditions of hockey and what organ music adds to the experience.”

...

Once the game starts, the Devils also use plenty of recorded music and scoreboard videos, but Cannarozzi still plays. He exhorts the crowd with a four-note “Let’s go, Devils” chant; accompanies an announcement about snack stands with “Food, Glorious Food,” from the musical “Oliver!”; and fills the time during a video goal review with the theme from “Jeopardy!”

“The main thing about the job is to get the crowd pumped up during the game, and entertain the audience,” said Cannarozzi, a longtime studio musician and musical director for Ashford & Simpson.

Kyle Hankins, the Nashville Predators’ organist, said: “We help underscore the hockey game in real time, just as any composer would do for a Broadway show or jazz pianist would do at the Blue Note. You can’t get that flexibility out of a CD or MPEG. Also, the timbre is comfort food to the ears that carries some nostalgia for young and old alike. Listening works a lot better than trying to shove a hot dog down your ear canal.”

Paul Cartier, an air-traffic controller and the Yankees’ organist, has been the Islanders’ organist off and on since 1979. He has seen a lot of changes.

“It used to be just me and the P.A. announcer, nothing else,” Cartier said of entertaining crowds at Nassau Coliseum during the Islanders’ Stanley Cup dynasty in the early 1980s. “It was awesome. I probably did a full 15 or 20 songs a night, and all the chant stuff. On some stoppages I didn’t even do anything; sometimes I let it just breathe.

“That doesn’t happen anymore. It’s all recorded, no dead space allowed. Now I’ll play two or three songs, tops. The only time I get to play a full song is when someone gets injured.”

The rise of prerecorded music at N.H.L. games dates to the mid-1980s. The Devils announcer Mike Emrick told the story of Mike Keenan, then coach of the Flyers, who signaled the game director in Philadelphia to crank up the rock music to pump up his players during warm-ups.

...

“It all depends on whether your producer likes organ music,” said Larry Olsen, the Carolina Hurricanes’ organist since 2000. Olsen said that his producer, Pete Soto, was a longtime Rangers fan who appreciated the organ’s place in a hockey game.

“The younger ones tend to like sound effects more,” Olsen said. “Some teams have laid off their organists for budgetary reasons, and because they figure the effects will do the job.”

But some organists detect a comeback for their music.

Jeremy Boyer, the Blues’ organist, said: “Here in St. Louis, the team toyed with the idea of changing the goal song to ‘Crowd Chant’ by Joe Satriani and replacing the traditional goal song, ‘When the Blues Go Marching In,’ played on the organ. When the team put the songs to a vote on its Web site, the St. Louis fans voted for the organ playing after goals in a landslide.”

An organist can come in handy in an emergency, as when a bank of lights failed here on Jan. 8, causing a 100-minute delay before the game was postponed.

“We had to wait for the N.H.L. to make a ruling on what to do,” Cannarozzi said. “In the meantime, we had to entertain everyone, so we went round robin: videos, ads, Dave doing a couple of prerecorded songs, me playing a couple of songs. It was a lot to do for an hour and 40 minutes.

“In the meantime, people were coming up to us and asking us what was happening,” he added. “They were almost hostile. So I played ‘We Are Family,’ ‘Thanks for the Memories.’ I tried to keep it light and up."

More organ notes

Here's a web page about Dan Wheeler, organist and music director for the Wheeling Nailers, and a guy who infamously for got tossed out of a game for playing "Three Blind Mice" after a bad call from the refs:

In a play-off game in this first season Dan was ejected from a game for taunting the officals with the song "Three blind mice". The game was being televised in Canada and ESPN sports. The ousting from the game made front page news and was picked up by wire services nationwide, making Dan the first organist in professional hockey history to ever be ejected from a game. A letter was directed to him from the commissioner of the league warning him and the team of a $500.00 fine and a bench minor penalty. Couch Doug Sauter commented along with the local papers that Dan was a important part of the team and fired up the crowds with his music.

And here's an article from SLAM! Sports about Horace Lapp, the original organist at Maple Leaf Gardens. (Read more about the original Maple Leaf Gardens organ here.)

In the early 1950s, my dad took me south from New Liskeard to visit family in Mimico. Uncle had tickets for a Leafs-Bruins game, and so, an excited teenager's first streetcar ride was to the Gardens.

The moment we entered the shrine, I could both hear and feel Horace.

Scaling the heights to greys in a corner, I couldn't care less how bad the seats were, the girder in front of us a shared obstruction. Lapp was playing La Golondrina (The Swallow) as the teams warmed up, swooping and gliding over the ice. With the power of the Mighty Wurlitzer organ at his command, his glorious sound resonated through the very wood beneath you, shivering your timbers.

Now and forever, it was the ultimate in piped-in noise.

I recall hearing a few bars of the Skaters Waltz during a protracted brawl, an abbreviated chorus of You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby as a combatant headed to the dressing room trailing blood from a high stick to the chops. Other than that, Horace restricted himself to playing mini-concerts between periods, an early apostle of less-is-more, no surprise that one of his first gigs was accompanying silent films.

Leafs owner Harold Ballard ripped out both the portrait of the Queen and the Mighty Wurlitzer from the end zones to make way for more seats, claiming they weren't paying the freight. Pal Hal ushered in an era of on-the-cheap, amateur organists who couldn't carry Horace Lapp's jockstrap in a bushel basket.

Where once silence was golden -- the game the thing -- we now find ourselves talking about whether the loudmouths who have taken over the airwaves and the sound systems should be further allowed to distort reality, to crank up the volume to unbearable levels.

Speaking for old guys, we have the option of tuning out or turning down the sound on our hearing aids. But even your Billy Bobs from Barrie recognize aural manipulation when they hear it. I recommend as an antidote Horace Lapp's version of Your Cheating Heart between whistles.

All about the original organ at Maple Leaf Gardens

Had a good chat this morning with a Carleton University grad student who's working on a paper exploring the history of organ music in sports. As far as I know, the Chicago Blackhawks were the first stadium to install an organ. It was the Barton Organ, a massive music machine that intimidated the visiting team, according to legend.

It's hard to find any history about other organs, but I did come across this today -- some info about the first organ at Maple Leaf Gardens, which apparantly still exists inside the Casa Loma in Toronto. Here's a bit of the story:

In 1956, the fatal news was announced that Shea's Hippodrome would be shuttered and the property demolished to make way for the new civic center. Almost too late the organ was purchased by the Maple Leaf Gardens from the wrecking company for $2,000. The roof of the theatre had already been removed! A month was allowed for removal of the instrument.

Credit for the purchase of the organ by the Maple Leaf Gardens management goes to two persons. Dr. Bruce Tovee, ATOS member, and personal physician to Gardens president, Major Conn Smythe, talked the major into buying it. The major, with a feeling of tradition and history, was convinced that the organ would serve a useful purpose in providing background music at hockey games, church rallies etc. The console, pipes, new bandstand and an executive clubhouse all fitted into a neat structure at the sound end of the Gardens under a huge new portrait of Queen Elizabeth.

During re-installation, the organ was considerably enlarged. A new 5-manual console was built, and two of the manuals were obtained from the right pit console of the New York Paramount. The action was completely re-leathered, and new relays installed. Three additional ranks were purchased from the Strand Theatre in Brooklyn, and California theatre organ enthusiast, Dick Simonton contributed an English Post Horn. A new blower was installed, and a high-pressure fanfare Trumpet was planned for but never installed. The piano was not included in the new specifications, either, but most of the toy counter and percussions were. Retained also were the Brass Trumpet. Brass Saxophone and a solo Tibia Clausa on 25inch wind pressure. The action was changed from pneumatic to partial electric operation.

About a year was required to properly install the organ. Doug Morris designed the new addition to the building. Sound engineer was Bob Wood. Much of the organ installation was handled by Ed Gress from Boston and Stewart Duncan, a local expert. Total cost of the project was approximately $100,000.

The first program on the newly installed instrument was on December 20, 1958, when Don "Knuckles" Gordon played seasonal music for Young Canada Night, between periods of a hockey game which was broadcast coast-to-coast on the CBC. Horace Lapp became organist shortly after.

The organ's tenure in Maple Leaf Gardens was a short one, indeed. In 1963 the Gardens were remodeled to add 1800 seats, the Wurlitzer becoming superfluous. What followed was a memorable battle among elements of organ lovers to keep the organ intact and in the area until a place could be found for its third installation.

When the smoke of battle had cleared, the Toronto Theatre Organ Society, with help from affluent members, purchased the organ for $3850. The instrument was removed from the Gardens in 1964, and stored in the imperial Theatre. The Imperial's manager, Bert Brown, was an ATOS member, so this helped the situation immeasurably. The organ languished for six years until the society found a home for it.

Early in 1970, the Kiwanis Club of West Toronto offered the Wurlitzer a home in Casa Loma, thereby replacing the organ which had been sold in the 1924 auction. In June 1970, the organ' s components were moved from the Imperial to the Casa Loma and housed in what was the indoor swimming pool. Installation was begun immediately by members of the Toronto Theatre Organ Society.

Read the entire article...

Thirty year anniversary of Disco Demolition Night

Disco Sucks! Disco Sucks!
July 12, 1979.
A twilight doubleheader at Comiskey Park.
The White Sox vs. The Tigers.
Between games, 24 year old Steve Dahl, popular disc jockey from Chicago White Station Route 98 would take the field at the head of his so-called Anti-Disco Army to blow up thousands of disco records.

What happened next is part of baseball history. Here's a video from ESPN looking back at the infamous night. (The actual moment of demolition is about halfway through.)


Interesting video, not just for the recap of Disco Demolition Night. Also videos and photos of Bill and Mike Veeck, and some of the other wacky promos at Comiskey in the 70's. I liked the shot of the old scoreboard, set up to politely read "PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR SEATS." And Bill Veeck and Harry Caray singing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" in a futile effort to calm things down.

Mike Veeck says at the end: "We did a promotion that caused a forfeiture. I regret that. As a cultural event, I'm kinda proud of it."

Here's more on the event Wikipedia...

1952: Conn Smythe tells players to stop chewing gum during the national anthem

Memo from Conn Smythe directing coaches to prohibit the chewing of gum
during the national anthem, December 3, 1952
Conn Smythe fonds
Reference Code: F 223-3-1-45
Archives of Ontario


Full text:

December 3, 1952

Mr. J. Primeau,
Mr. Stafford Smythe,
Father Faught,

Gentlemen:

There has been considerable criticism of the conduct of the individual players during the playing of the National ANthem.

It would be greatly appreciated if you would instruct your players to stand at attention, refrain from chewing gum and any other movements during this ceremony.

Yours very truly,

Conn Smythe,
President.

CS/McD