Roger Angell on the Yankee Stadium Organist, circa 1985
Roger Angell, writing in Fall 1985
Season Ticket, Houghton-Mifflin, 1988, p251-252
If there is an impatient or aggrieved sound to these remarks, it is not directed at the Yankee players, whom I mostly admire and wish well. I would like to root wholeheartedly for the Yankees one of these days, but somebody is always jumping up and spoiling the view – the owner, the manager, some of the fans. The resonance of the game up at the Stadium has gone sour, and often comes across as being ill-tempered, distracted, patronizing, and frantically concerned with winning. That tone is perfectly represented by the Stadium organ music – if that is the right word for the puerile and infuriated assault of noises, nudges, and schlocky musical references with which the management (it must be a management decision, after all) attempts to cajole the players, bait the visitors, and whip up the helpless captive masses in the stands. The mighty electronic wurstmaker is scarcely silent for the duration of a foul tip, it seems, and its mindless and almost ceaseless commentary abrades the fabric of the game and the soul of the watching fan. This year, forcing myself actually to listen to the thing for once, I tried to pick out the main phrasings and modulations of a mid-inning concerto furioso:
Organ: "Buh da-da-da-da! Buh da-da-da-da! Buh da-da!buh da-da- da-da- da-da!" (theme from "Gaîte Parisienne," here repeated in mad up-tempo.) Pause. "Tah-tah-tah-tahhh!" (Beethoven's Fifth, opening theme.) Pause.
"Beedle-di-deet, dah-dah-dah-deet! Beedle-di-tweet, da-da-da-tweet!" (Theme from "Dardanella," for seven seconds.) Pause. "Tah-tah-tah-tah- ta-tahhhhhh!" (The "Charge!" bugle call, accompanied by a gigantic illuminated "charge!" command out on the scoreboard.)Then, ominously, as Rickey Henderson comes up to bat: "Buh-buh bum-bum, buh-buh bum-bum, buh-buh bum-bum, buh-buh bum-bum!" (Shark music from "Jaws.") Pause for the pitch. Single to center field. Organ, joyfully: "Tee-tah tattle-tah tattle-tah!" ("Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue," quickly segueing into the "colonel Bogey March." Pause. David Winfield steps in, to a low-register "Grrummmm buddledy-dummmm!" (Crypt theme: Bach? Mussorgsky?) There is a base hit, sending Rickey to third base and bringing us the theme from "Over There" ("The Yanks are coming." Get it?) fortissimo, and then, very quickly an irritating repeated upbeat "Blim-blim bah! Blim-blim bah! Teedle-weedle-dee dah-blim-blim-blah!" which drives me bananas for the minute or two before I can recall it as an asinine and once nearly inescapable commercial jingle for Campell's soup: "Mhmm-hmm good! Mhmm-hmm good! That's what Campbell's soup is – mhmm-hmm good!" Well, enough of this, I think, except that It should perhaps be added that whenever Mike Pagliarulo came up to bat at the Stadium he was greeted with "Funiculi-Funicula" – except for the times when we heard Oh! Ma-Ma" ("It's the butcher boy for me," etc.) He batted .239 for the year.