Ahh, the sights and sounds of a major league baseball game.
Cries of “Ice cold beer!” from the roaming bucket vendors, sizzling hot dogs, the in-between inning murmur of a crowd lifting to a roar when the crack of a bat snaps through the air, and of course, the various organ tunes that get fans clapping or singing along.
Sadly, many ballparks have done away with an actual organ player and just pipe in prerecorded tracks but there’s a few teams still holding on to a once universal baseball tradition. As of last year, there were 9 teams still employ a full-time live organist: Twins, Red Sox, Yankees, Reds, Cubs, Cardinals, Braves, Diamondbacks, and Dodgers.
Back in the day, these musicians were treated as local celebrities, and while die hard fans will still know their names, the unfortunate reality is that this is a dying profession.
But, just yesterday, the Los Angeles Dodgers organist proved that it’s still more than worth it to have a real person with some comedic chops at the helm.
The Dodgers played the Diamondbacks yesterday and though they wound up losing 6-0, a moment from just before the game is blowing up online thanks to Mr. Dieter Ruehle, the organist for the Kings and Dodgers, who Snoop Dogg said was “Vicious on the keys”.
Somehow a car caught on fire in the parking lot, which is obviously not great, but Ruehle noticed the smoke bellowing into the sky and a ruthless joke leapt into his mind. Without second thought, he began playing Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire” and it’s one of the craziest and funniest things I’ve seen in a long time.
Take a look for yourself and tell me this alone doesn’t prove we need more organists in ballparks:
The organ player is cold blooded… pic.twitter.com/4vJ3U4LpW0
— Eric Staniford (@EricStaniford) May 22, 2024
I’ve seen enough. Give me a petition, a donation bucket, whatever it takes, but every ballpark should have an organist and they should be encouraged to run wild.
Gosh, I love baseball.
