- [Dempster] All right, guys, welcome to this edition of Inside the Friendly Confines.
My guest today, legendary organist for the Chicago Cubs, Gary Pressy.
- [Pressy] Ryan, nice meeting you, buddy. This is great.
- Yeah, a pleasure to have you here, man.
- Thank you, thank you.
- So you've been here forever as we cruise along here.
- 31 years.
- In August, if everything goes well, I'll be celebrating my 2500th consecutive game.
- Wow, man. 2500 games. How do you narrow it down after 2500 games and say,
"This was my favorite game"? You've got to have one.
- Well, definitely last year took the cake, the sixth game with the Dodgers to
get to the World Series. That was just awesome. But we've had other games,
playoffs in '98, in 2007 and '08 also, and 2003, that was an exciting year.
- Yeah.
- But nothing could top last year.
- Yeah, I bet, right? Knowing that final moment...
- There it is.
- Man, look at that, look at that gleaming, huh? The sun's hitting it just
right. Golly, that's spectacular.
- For a guy that sits on the bench, I get this? That's great.
- I know, it's amazing. You know, when you're up there, favorite time of the day,
favorite time of the game where you're like, "Oh, man, I can't wait until this."
I'm guessing it's the seventh inning.
- Thank you very much. It sure is, and as you know, Harry, you did it a couple times
and you did a great job and it's so fantastic to meet all different walks of
life. I mean, you know, actors and actresses and people in politics,
and Donald Trump even sang in 2001. I mean, so it's great.
- Best seventh inning stretch singer that you've had up there?
- I would say, Vin Scully. He did it the first year in 1998 and he didn't do it
after that and he was like an Irish tenor, he did such a sensational job.
- Yeah.
- And now you're going to go probably the other way, right?
- Worst?
- Well, the funniest one was Ditka.
- Ditka.
- When he was a little late coming but he arrived on time, he sang it in a polka
version and the thing is we scored seven runs in the bottom of the inning so it was
like the new Rockne, rah, rah, rah, let's go, let's go, let's go.
And Ozzy Osbourne, of course.
- I was going to say, Ozzy, if you can understand what he was saying.
- Well, he was singing it backwards so that's okay, you know. But at the end,
he did say let's get some runs.
- For me, I know you love playing all kinds of different jingles,
keeping the fans going in between innings. For me, what would the
song you would choose to play?
- Well, there was two. When you were a starting pitcher
it would be Start Me Up.
- All right.
- And when you were a relief pitcher coming in and holding the lead you can
play Hang On to What We Got
- Oh, I like that.
- That's right.
- No "Oh Canada" for the Canadian guy.
- Well, that's true. That would've been the old Montreal Expos when they came in.
- That's right. What about some other ones, other favorite ones where you played
and it reminds you of a certain player that you admire because you've been up
there for a long time, a lot of guys have come through.
- Mark Grace, I would play Taking Care of Business because he was in the
movie Taking Care of Business and he would look up and give me the wave and
that's so great. Ryne Sandberg, American Hero, I would play and he certainly is.
And I appreciate when the players actually know what I'm playing for them
and they like that.
- Yeah, yeah, it's pretty spectacular. And to think that many baseball games through
all that time, you see your team go to the World Series, play in the World Series...
- Unbelievable.
- Win the World Series....
- Isn't that something? And believe me when I first started here in 1987, we
finished last, but that was Andre Dawson's MVP year and I would do the theme from
Superman when he would bat so that...
- Well, because he kind of was like Superman.
- Especially that year.
- Right.
- You ain't kidding. So I've seen the Cubs finish last and obviously finish up on top
and I like the latter better.
- Do you ever think, "I'm just doing this until I don't want to do it anymore," or
do you sit there and say, "I want to do it for 50 years"?
- No, I don't put a number on it. As long as I enjoy it and the fans are enjoying it
and the players enjoy it, that's priceless, especially when I'm at the Cubs
convention. They'll come up to me and say, "I was at this game and you played this
little jingle for this player and I caught it right away." So I mean,
that's priceless.
- I've been sitting in the stands and you do hear it from fans,
they almost play that kind of name that...
- Name that tune, yeah, exactly.
- Wait for it.
- Yeah, the other day I got a note from one of the fans, "I'm sitting in aisle
516, you played the Choo Choo Charlie song for Charlie Blackmon." Well,
that's great. Thanks for listening.
- Yeah, yeah, well it's definitely entertaining. We always appreciate
everything you do. Your stretch is absolutely the best in the game.
- Well, you know, it's fun, like I told you, and I appreciate that I'm doing
something I've always wanted to do since I was 5 years old.
- Yeah.
- Play the organ for a professional team.
- I know that they say coming to Wrigley Field is an experience and you're a huge
part of that experience.
- Well, thank you very much. I really do. Thank you, Ryan, very much.
- Yeah, absolutely. My guest, Gary Pressy, right here on Inside the
Friendly Confines. We'll see you guys again.