“Take Me Out to the Ball Game”:The Rise and Fall of the Baseball Organist

Matthew MihalkaUniversity of Minnesota

“It is nonsensical so-called music consisting of dah-dah-dah—dah-dah-dah, and increasing in volume as the game progresses. . . If someone would ask me what could be done to improve big league baseball I would say “Take the blankety-blank organs out of all ballparks.”– Don Marsh, Los Angeles Times, 1987.

“[Ballpark organists] are a dying breed, replaced each year by another DJ blasting canned rock; squeezed out by M&M races, text message quizzes and all other forms of Jumbotron techno-blather designed, it seems, to entertain bored teenagers and make fans forget where they are.”– Melissa Isaacson, Chicago Tribune, 2004.

Hammond B2 Organ

Wrigley Field – Chicago, Illinois

Ebbets Field – Brooklyn, New York

Gladys Goodding

Dodgers Sym-Phony

Hilda Chester

Comiskey Park Exploding Scoreboard

Houston Astrodome Scoreboard

Team Mascots

Youppi, Montreal Expos (1979) Phillie Phanatic (1978) Crazy Crab, SF Giants (1984)

Disco Demolition

Morganna – “The Kissing Bandit”

KGB Chicken/San Diego Chicken

Introduced in 1974

Dodger Stadium Video Board

Three Rivers Stadium - Pittsburgh

Veterans Stadium - Philadelphia

Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium

Riverfront Stadium - Cincinnati

Oriole Park at Camden Yards – Baltimore

Citizens Bank Park - Philadelphia

AT&T Park – San Francisco

Comerica Park - Detroit

Kauffman Stadium ScoreboardsOld Scoreboard New HD Scoreboard

Fenway Park

Nancy Faust, White Sox Organist1970 - 2010

Matthew Kaminski, Braves Organist

Matthew Kaminski, Braves Organist

Nancy Faust at (Old) Comiskey Park

Sue Nelson, Minnesota Twins Organist

Metrodome Target Field