Take Me Out to the Friendliest Ballpark

 

The Day the Microphone Went on the Fritz During the National Anthem

It calls itself “America’s Friendliest Ballpark” and you’d be hard pressed to find any stadium where the staff and concession workers are any friendlier, from the kid at the entrance holding a sign that says “May I Help You” to the popcorn vendor who insists on filling your tub with popcorn coming straight out of the popper. “Doesn’t get any fresher.”

I live half an hour away from Smokies Stadium, the minor league park that is home to the Chicago Cubs Double-A franchise. It supposedly sits in Kodak, Tennessee but since I’ve never seen Kodak proper, I just tell people it’s at the Gatlinburg exit off I-40. (Some folks prefer to call it the Dollywood exit and with the recent opening of the mega-gas station/convenience store out of Texas, it may soon be known as the Buc-ee’s exit.)

This past weekend the wife and I headed east to Kodak for an afternoon contest between the Tennessee Smokies and the blandly-named opponent the Mississippi Braves. (Other teams in the same league include such crazy-named franchises as the Rocket City Trash Pandas, the Biloxi Shuckers and the Montgomery Biscuits.)

It was a beautiful day, what Dizzy Dean used to call shirt-sleeve weather, 85 degrees with a comforting breeze.

After many years as an afterthought, minor league baseball has returned to its roots as a place to go for fun. Every Smokies game has a theme, from Star Wars Night to Bigfoot Chase Night to Pete the Cat Night featuring an appearance by a YouTube cat that I’ve never heard of.

It takes me back to my childhood when minor league games might feature a milking contest between opposing players or an appearance by the Clown Prince of Baseball Al Schachter and maybe, every few seasons, a wedding at home plate!

On August 23, 1947 Kingsport Cherokees second baseman Bill Polston married local girl Mary Nell Adkins at home plate in J. Fred Johnson Stadium. For the record Polston went 0 for 3 with an error that afternoon. The marriage produced four sons and lasted a lifetime.

The off the field events are now family friendly, games with kids competing between innings, bowling with pomegranates and cumquats to win jerseys and tickets.

The National Anthem at America’s Friendliest Ballpark is never a recording but always a local singer or group. This past Sunday it was a four-woman church choir. As the staff was setting up the microphone behind home plate, my wife expressed concern. They really need four mikes not one, she said The melody will be overwhelmed with just one mike.

That didn’t turn out to be the problem. The problem was the mike went on the fritz. So when the choir began singing, they were inaudible. Then the microphone would cut back in and blast “by the dawn’s early light” before cutting out again. The audio technicians in the booth were frantically turning knobs, trying to correct the problem but it only made it worse. “At the twilight’s last gleaming” screeched and then cut out.

And that’s when it began.

The crowd, some 4,639 strong, began singing, picking up the choir. No one had stood up to encourage the group sing; the public address announcer didn’t try to lead the chorus. It was entirely spontaneous, teenagers with their boyfriends, veterans in wheel chairs in the handicapped section, moms and dads, kids in Smokies tee shirts, all united.

People were looking around at each other. Is this really happening?

After “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!” the crowd erupted.

It was the best National Anthem ever.

 

 

Walk Up Songs

We didn’t have “Walk Up Songs” when I was playing baseball but they are ubiquitous now. There are even lists online for Best Little League Walk Up Songs! What’s a walk-up song? It’s a tune, usually a snippet of a popular song, that is played over the public address system as a player approaches the batter’s box. (Or as a relief pitcher comes on.) Today each player picks his or her own song, a tune that reflects their personality, or self-perceived personality. But in the beginning – back in the seventies – it was the organist for the Chicago White Sox, Nancy Faust, who decided to play a different “walk up song” for each Sox player. She would play the state song from each player’s home state. Eventually the practice caught on and by the nineties it was a full-blown tradition.

One of the first players to request a specific song, according to MLB.com, was the Phillies Lenny Dykstra who requested Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down.”

But the first player completely identified with a specific song was Cubs’ relief pitcher Mitch Williams who would race in from the bullpen as the organist played “Wild Thing.”

Now every player wants an identifying song.

I would, too.

As we were sitting in the ball park Sunday, watching batters approach the plate, I began pondering, What should my walk-up song be? My first thought was, I need to think about this. But a few seconds later, I an answer popped in my head.

I would walk up to the plate with the PA playing an old Chiffons’ song:

Do lang, do lang, do lang.

Do lang, do lang.

He’s so fine.

I wish he were mine.

That handsome boy over there.

The one with the wavy hair.

That’s when I decided the PA person should cut the song right before it got to “wavy hair.”

That’s not me.

What should your "walk up song" be?