Re: Crowd Noise at Nets Game

["Bob George" <bgp@lightspeed.net>]

----------
> From: Douglas342@aol.com
> To: dforant1@nycap.rr.com; Celtics@igtc.com
> Subject: Re: Crowd Noise at Nets Game
> Date: Sunday, February 28, 1999 4:23 PM
> 
>     I agree 100% about artificial noise.  When I go to clipper games
(they
> don't get capitalized anymore), the arena is constantly bombarded by
music and
> other sounds.  During timeouts?  Fine (if you must), but during the game,
> crowd only, please!
>     When I was growing up in Beantown, seems to me that John Kiley put
out an
> occasional bleat on his organ, and that was it.  Red Sox games had maybe
some
> organ music between innings. Now most games are part of a package of
> commericals and entertainment.  (Of course, the last game I saw at Fenway
> featured a Sox outfield of Jensen, Piersall and Williams.  They probably
> didn't have amplifiers back then, huh?)

Bring up John Kiley and I shed a few tears.  I truly loved hearing Kiley at
Fenway and the Garden.  He was the best ballpark/stadium organist in the
country, bar none.  He is part of the reason why I dislike all this lazer
introductions junk and all the organ music played during games (they even
do it at the Fleet).  Kiley used to have, as you say, occasional bleats,
but I think that's what management told him to do.  Never have I heard any
such bleats at Fenway, and here's hoping I never do.

Quick sidebar on Kiley:  being a classical musician myself, my brother (an
organist/classical singer when he's not designing software) and I had the
privilege of meeting and talking to Kiley in 1982 at the Garden.  Kiley was
a well schooled organist who knew the classics well...some organists across
the country (the "great" Nancy Faust, the White Sox organist, for one)
can't read music!  She plays by ear.  Kiley was a musician's musician, and
it made me feel even better about him as our organist.

Sorry about the digression, my history tidbit for the day!

Bob G