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.
 

20th Anniversary of the Milwaukee Brewers racing sausages

Found this in an old bookmark file tonight, while preparing for my Algonquin College Sports Management class tomorrow.

Here's a press release from the Brewers:

This Thursday, June 27, 2013 marks an anniversary of one of the most historic events in Milwaukee Brewers history. On that day in 1993, the Klement's Famous Racing Sausages came to life, jumping off of the scoreboard and onto the field to complete the first of well over 1,000 "official" races to date. The races became a fixture at Milwaukee County Stadium and the tradition carried on with the move to Miller Park.
The Milwaukee Brewers and Klement's want to invite you to join in celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the occasion on Thursday, June 27. The fun starts at 6 am at NorthPoint Custard, 2272 N. Lincoln Memorial Drive, along the Lake Michigan shores. The first 250 fans will receive a free sausage breakfast sandwich (of course), a coffee, and best of all, an exclusive 20th Anniversary Klement's Famous Racing Sausages Commemorative T-Shirt. Fewer than 500 of the shirts will be made, and the event will be first come, first served.
That afternoon, the Brewers will host a pre-game ceremony to officially mark the anniversary, which will include a race featuring only the "Original Three" Sausages and much more.

A few fun facts on the history of the Klement's Famous Racing Sausages:

1. The Klement's Famous Racing Sausages began as a scoreboard animation in the early 1990's with three characters running toward Milwaukee County Stadium against the backdrop of the city skyline. They were shown running through the parking lot, arriving at the gates to the outfield, where they merely became dots on the scoreboard and a winner was determined.
2. In the fall of 1992, the idea to have the Sausages transform from a simple scoreboard dot to arrive on field to complete the race as live Sausages -- was presented by Milwaukee graphic designer Michael Dillon (McDill Design) to Gabe Paul (then VP of Operations for The Milwaukee Brewers). During the off-season, Dillon advanced the idea on his own and hand crafted three larger than life costumes of the lovable characters: a Bratwurst, a Polish, and an Italian sausage. In the spring of 1993, he got the call from Gabe Paul. The sausages could race -- live.
3. The first race took place at Milwaukee County Stadium on June 27, 1993 and made history by being the first-ever live racing event by mascots at a MLB game.
4. The original race was scheduled for June 26, 1993 -- a notable date for fans as it was the first series in which former Milwaukee Brewer, Paul Molitor, played in County Stadium, as a Toronto Blue Jay against his former team. However, there was a scoreboard malfunction that day and the race was postponed to Sunday, June 27.
5. The winner of the first race was the Bratwurst. The original costumed runners were all McDill Design employees -- Michael Dillon as the Bratwurst, Dan Necci as the Italian, and Jeff Paul as the Polish.
6. According to Dillon, the race was a well-kept secret, which resulted in a mixed reception: the crowd went "berserk" but the officiating umpires (and more than a few players) thought that it "diminished the professional nature" of the game. Coincidentally, the controversy may have been the catalyst the team needed as the Brewers had been scoreless through the sixth inning and rallied with two runs in both the 7th and 8th innings - after the sausage race.
7. For the remainder of the 1993 season, the Sausage characters raced live only at those games that had particularly high attendance.
8. In the 1994 season, the live Sausage race resumed on Sunday, May 29 -- the day the Brewers retired Robin Yount's number 19 jersey, and became a fixture at every home game since -- with Klement's as the official sponsor.
9. The phenomenon of live racing mascots was born in Milwaukee, and was a first for MLB. Entering the 2013 season, nearly half of all MLB teams now have their own version of the iconic race.
10. A video of the June 27, 1993, first live race can be viewed here.

Gameday #3: A great opening video produced by the Vancouver Canucks.

Just published the newest edition of GAMEDAY, my email newsletter about great sports creative. This edition is about a great opening video produced by the Vancouver Canucks that captures the team's new personality under head coach John Tortorella. You can read it and subscribe here...

Cool pre-game lighting at Chicago Blackhawks home opener

The Chicago Blackhawks produced a great pre-game show as part of the Stanley Cup banner raising on opening night last week.

The full-ice video projection was produced by Dangers Inc. out of Montreal, who worked with the Blackhawks in-house team to put together the moving video and graphics. Every member of the audience is wearing a remote-operated LED wristband called a Xyloband. Coldplay used these on their most recent tour. As you can see in the video they were able to program each section to flash little pins of light.

Nice job AJ & crew in Chicago to create a high-impact show and make the audience the "stars".

 

PHOTO: Michael Jackson drops the puck at a Canucks game in 1984

Wow. Vancouver gets all the big names for the puck drop, don't they? Wasn't the Queen there a few years ago?

Michael Jackson drops the puck for a game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Vancouver, 1984 pic.twitter.com/cK99GBcljz
— History In Pictures (@HistoryInPics) August 23, 2013

Baseball organist Nancy Faust is now available in bobblehead format

This is pretty cool. It's a bobblehead honouring Nancy Faust, former organist for the Chicago White Sox.  She plays the organ occasionally for the Kane County Cougars (Chicago Cubs affiliate), who are giving these bobbleheads on Sunday, August 11.

See also: Detroit Red Wings PA Announcer Budd Lynch Bobblehead

What a video scoreboard promotion looks like in Japan: "Home Run Cam"

Check out this really fun video from the Orix Buffaloes, a pro baseball team in Japan. I think it is called "Home Run Cam". It was one of the entries in this year's Golden Matrix Awards.

A brief history of Whoomp! (There It Is) on its 20th anniversary

One of the most popular and most annoying sports anthems turns twenty this year. Happy Birthday Whoomp!

Here's the backstory on the song from 5280.com:

Steve Rolln was on the line with his man DC the Brain Supreme. DC had been talking to three strippers—Cinnamon, Chocolate, and Dark-N-Lovely—who’d just gotten back from Miami and had told DC, who was a strip-club DJ, about a chant that had gone viral in the South Florida clubs: “Whoomp! There it is.” It was difficult to decipher at first; the refrain was so guttural, so dirty. Was it “whoop” or “whoops” or “woot”? No, no, no. It was whoomp, a bit of ingenious, onomatopoeic strip-club slang to which someone had appended the phrase “there it is.” A woman takes it all off, and—Whoomp! There it is. DC was on it. He wanted to take those four words, wrap a beat around them, and make a song. A party song. The party song.
...
Since Steve and DC released it 20 years ago, “Whoomp! (There It Is)” has made a bigger impact than even the two dreamers could have imagined. The song, which is not much more than a gussied-up strip-club mantra, was certified four times platinum in the United States, generated millions of dollars in sales and royalties, and ranks among the country’s most commercially successful singles of all time. It reached No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 1993 end-of-the-year chart (and was in the top 50 in ’94). In the annals of American pop music sales, “Whoomp!” sits right alongside singles by icons like Elvis, the Beatles, and Michael Jackson. And, even today, “Whoomp!” still gets airtime on the radio, at sports venues, in television commercials, and on movie soundtracks. In two decades it’s gone from bona fide hit to kitsch to generational touchstone. Put another way, “Whoomp!” has matured and grown by means of reminding a whole bunch of thirty- and fortysomethings of their immaturity, of all the fun they used to have before jobs and kids and marriages and mortgages.

Read the full article...

What the organ (and organist) looks like at Centre Bell in Montreal

From Ottawa CBC reporter Stu Mills' Twitter feed in the playoffs:

Diane Bibaud's Farfisa...which also moved over from The Montreal Forum. #cbcott pic.twitter.com/FRDsTUUdx0
— Stu Mills (@StuMillsCBC) May 2, 2013

Canadiens organist since '87, a very warm and friendly Diane Bibaud in her office. pic.twitter.com/4N759i0TXS
— Stu Mills (@StuMillsCBC) May 2, 2013

VIDEO: Sens fans wish Cora McKenna a happy 100th birthday

A fun moment from a recent Sens game. Sens fan Cora McKenna was celebrating her 100th birthday. Sparty delivered a cake and 20,000 Sens fans in Scotiabank Place watched in suspense to see if she'd blow out the candle.