Sound of Silence — Baseball Bench Coach

Baseball is such a great way to reconnect with friends. I recently caught up with a teammate I met at a baseball camp over twenty years ago. It felt good to talk about the former MLB players we met at camp, the games we played, and the laughs we shared. For thirty minutes or so we were both kids again. My friend mentioned that his attending a baseball game, unlike other sporting events, allows him to relax and take in the quietness of the game. I couldn’t agree more. Yes, the experience at a ballpark today is somewhat different than in the past, but there still can be a certain calmness about it that makes me happy. I love hearing the crack of the bat, the calls of the vendors, and all the wonderful sounds of the game.

As we remain hopeful of a shortened season either through an agreement by MLB and the Players Association or Commissioner Manfred’s mandate, it’s clear that any MLB games played in 2020 will be without fans in attendance. For a baseball player, appearing before a large crowd is not all that common. High school players typically see only parents and perhaps a girlfriend in the stands, and some college experiences are the same. While minor league baseball has seen an uptick in attendance and fan excitement, it’s not until you reach the MLB, or “the Show”, when you play before large crowds. One of my favorite scenes from the 2002 movie “The Rookie” is when 37-year old Tampa Bay Devil Rays rookie pitcher Jim Morris, played by Dennis Quaid, looks up in amazement at the upper level of the grandstands in his first MLB game at the Ballpark in Arlington (home of the Texas Rangers). He finally made it; there is a second level of seating!

What sounds at the ballpark am I going to miss? Certainly organ music comes to mind. The first time an organ was played at an MLB game was on April 26, 1941, at Wrigley Field. Chicago organist Ray Nelson started a long line of legendary organists in ballparks, including the Yankees’ Eddie Layton and Nancy Faust of the White Sox. Faust was particularly cutting edge, famous for playing “Na, Na, hey hey, goodbye” to arouse the home crowd. As baseball moved into the 1970s, many teams played in the cookie-cutter, multi-purpose stadiums and abandoned the organ music. Old-time ballparks though, like Wrigley, have kept the tradition alive. Beginning with the end of the 1986 season through his retirement this past year, Gary Pressy delighted Cubs fans with daily renditions of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”, “Go Cubs Go” after a win, and numerous in-game ditties reflecting what just happened on the field. And while we’re talking about music at the ballpark, this baseball purist can do without the loud, piped in music, including the batter “walk up” themes that are so popular now.

I’m also going to miss the vendors in the stands with their pleas of “Get your hot dogs here”. Exploring food options at a ballpark nowadays is like paging through the menu of the “Cheesecake Factory”; there is so much to offer! But I’ll take my simple dog, with mustard, the best food attraction for most baseball fans with over 26 million sold annually at MLB ballparks. Or perhaps I’ll take one next year. And of course there are the calls of the beer vendors. Sometimes it’s a simple “Beer Man” that catches your attention, but more often you are drawn to a brand, “Cold Budweiser”. Along the third base side at Wrigley you are even treated to the sweet tunes of the singing beer vendor. I’ll miss that in 2020. But what I won’t miss, the constant handing of money to the guy in the middle of the row. It’ll be interesting to see if that practice continues going forward.

I’ll miss viewing the scoreboard at the game. For me, that means studying the information one can find there – the score and inning; the statistics of the pitcher and the hitter; and my personal favorite, the scores of other games being played in MLB during a pennant race. At Wrigley, the bleacher bums will miss the pitter-patter of the Balls and Strikes being transmitted to the manual scoreboard from the press box by “Quick Rick” Fuhs, the fastest in the game. I won’t miss the advertisements or promotions blasting on the scoreboard; not at all. While I enjoy watching a replay or two on the electronic scoreboard, I can also get that at home. And what I certainly won’t miss is any prompting by the scoreboard operators of fan noise. I’ve always wanted to replace “Let’s Make Some Noise” with “Let’s Watch the Game”. I remember in the 1970s observing with great disdain these giant hands clap on the scoreboard at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium. Please, no.

How about the sound of booing at the ballpark? I don’t mind it all. In fact, I think I’ll miss that part of the fan experience. Sometimes, booing a visiting player is a compliment, demonstrating fan knowledge of a star player. I’m that guy who loves to clap for the opposing player when he makes an outstanding play, a show of respect. Unfortunately, home team players often are recipients of booing, due to a slump at the plate, making a critical error, or a poor pitching performance. And of course most of the booing is directed at the umpires, especially by the fan in the left field pavilion screaming about the strike zone! Yeah, I’ll admit it, that used to be me, but age has helped this crazy behavior. Hopefully this season, I’ll get the chance to watch MLB games at home and complain that the strike-zone technology demonstrated that the home plate umpire is missing pitches. Of course I’d much rather hear booing while I’m at the ballpark, than my own “Aw, come on!” at the television screen.

There is so much offered at the ballpark today to interest the younger fans and attract new fans. Where do we cross the line between good, plain fun and gimmickry? In 1981 at a game in Oakland, the A’s fans started the first known “wave” in MLB history. A wave really needs a full ballpark; that’s not happening. For me, I’m glad we seem to be out of that phase at ballparks. I do though like mascots at MLB games. The first known mascot was Mr. Met in 1964 at Shea Stadium. There have been some legendary ones, such as the San Diego Chicken introduced in 1977 and my personal favorite, the Phillie Phanatic. These three mascots are all in the Mascot Hall of Fame (yes, there is one). I remember my grandson’s smile last year when he met Clark the Cub at Wrigley. It was in stark contrast to his mother’s reaction to St. Louis’ Fredbird 30 years ago. The fun with the mascots though stops for me when they appear on top of the dugouts with a number of team promoters blowing whistles and shooting t-shirts to the crowd. I’m glad I won’t hear that sound this year.

How will no fans in the stands impact play on the field? I heard a former MLB pitcher remark that it might take 1 or 2 mph off of a fastball; that will be analyzed I’m sure. I have to admit that I’ve chuckled over seeing the new practice of players gathering on the pitching mound and talking into their gloves in noisy ballparks. That will certainly continue now in the empty ballparks. In April 2015, we did experience an MLB game in a quiet setting, a game at Camden Yards between the Orioles and White Sox. Tragically, the scene is all too familiar today. The city of Baltimore was experiencing much civil unrest as a result of a police incident a few weeks earlier. The games of April 27 and 28 were cancelled for safety reasons, but MLB permitted the teams to play on April 29 with only the teams and media present. It was eerily quiet in the ballpark that day, so much so that the WGN-TV microphones could pick up conversations on the field. Interestingly, the game was played in 2 hours, 3 minutes. Maybe there is one, small silver lining in this mess.

In Simon and Garfunkel’s hit song “Sound of Silence” 50 years ago, the lyrics “people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening”, ring true in baseball today. Perhaps it is a message to MLB and the Players Association about their negotiations over the past month. Paul Sullivan, president of the Baseball Writers’ Association, had this to say: “Speaking on behalf of baseball fans everywhere, we’re tired of your incessant squabbling, your inane counterproposals and your constant harrumphing.” We all just want to hear these words in our empty ballparks soon, “Play Ball”.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach