Finally Taking Him Out

The Chicago Cubs have long had a traditional where a "guest conductor" leads the crowd in singing "Take Me Out to the ballgame during the 7th inning stretch, accompanied by the organist.  It began with announcer Harry Caray, and has continued in 1998 after he passed away with a vast range of names from Bill Murray to Mike Ditka, Ernie Banks, Eddie Vedder, Billy Corrigan, Vin Scully, Shania Twain, John Fogerty, Danica Patrick, Ozzie Osbourne, Joe Mantegna, Gary Sinise, John Cusack, Nancy Kerrigan, Jay Leno, Ann-Margaret, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Muhammed Ali, Walter Payton, Gale Sayers, and on and on and on.  And yesterday, they added yet another name --

The organist.

As you might imagine, there's a reason that they finally had Wrigley Field's organist Gary Pressy sing the Stretch to his own accompanist.  That's because it was his 2,400th consecutive game.  He hasn't missed a ballgame since he started in 1987, almost 30 years ago.

And so, the Cubs finally gave Gary Pressy his moment in the sun.  (Literally.  Hey, this is Wrigley Field.)

And appropriately, the Cubs won, beating the Seattle Mariners 5-0.

​Here he is --