Is that 'Africa' by Toto?
This week, on my sick bed, I was charmed by an MLB tradition: the live organist
On Sunday night I was feeling as rough as a robber’s dog. On my sick bed, a stranger to sleep for over 36 hours, trying to focus on Washington Nationals at Cincinnati on MLB TV.
In central Scotland, the weekend had been a beauty - blue skies and sunshine that was scheduled to stick around for a week. Meanwhile, in Ohio, the heavens opened.
The Nationals’ starting pitcher, MacKenzie Gore, was getting pissed off with it. He was losing his grip on both the baseball and the game and he had just lost his footing, slipping off the pitching mound after his last effort.
Then this happened. What you see here is Gore assessing his own injury before throwing a few pitches to see if the increasingly muddy mound is a safe place for him to work. But what are you hearing? Give it 20 seconds or so, then Name That Tune.
Yes, that’s Africa by Toto.
Because, ‘I bless the rains’.
It’s not a perfect fit. Nowhere near it, mainly because the lyrics of Africa are like a fever dream and it would be impossible to take any more than four words at a time and apply them to a real-world scenario that didn’t involve a heroic dose of liberty cap mushrooms.
But this is an example of the reactive, live, in-stadium organist - a tradition in baseball stadia for a century but now present in less than half of MLB ballparks.
John Schutte is on the keys at Great American Ballpark and he dipped into his repertoire to come up with something that spoke to the deluge bedeviling the plains of Ohio.
Over the years I have been watching baseball, I have been frequently tickled by the organist’s choices. Mainly, they go for cheap engagement (don’t we all?) with call-and-response stuff to fill the many 20-second gaps in play.
Think The Addams Family theme (clap on the clicks).
Think Blister In The Sun by the Violent Femmes (clap on the snare hits).
At times of peril for the opposition, they might throw in John Williams’ two-note masterpiece from Jaws.
But often these virtuosos throw in leftfield material that leaves you wondering… who is that for? Does Dodger Stadium really go crazy for mid-tempo Beck album tracks from 15 years ago? Do Yankees fans associate Personal Jesus by Depech Mode with sporting ecstasy?
Music plays a big part in the stadium experience. Walk-on songs can be fun. I like it when they play a snippet of Unbelievable by EMF when someone makes a crazy catch in the outfield, or It Takes Two by Rob Base and E-Z Rock after a double play. And I love the victory songs that keep an entire stadium in place after the final play - none more so than this one.
But above all this noise, and certainly soaring above the by-rote renditions of various patriotic and sporting hymns, from America the Beautiful to Take Me Out To The Ball Game, is the work of these declining few artistes.
Organists of MLB, we salute you.