Hottest fans debatable, but Cubs beat Sox in music tributes
The first-place Cubs have the best record in all of baseball. The first-place White Sox have baseball's biggest divisional lead. The question of which team has the hottest fans is hotly contested. And the teams will duke it out on the field later this month (and probably again in October).
But the Cubs clearly are beating the Sox in the battle of the bands.
The North Siders have launched a thousand songs -- 1,140 if you can believe the YouTube.com counter.
And one new CD.
Licensed and approved by the Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball, the suburban-produced "Take Me Out to a Cubs Game" CD went on sale Monday.
The idea for the CD was hatched in September in the wake of a Cubs victory as the last refrain of "Go, Cubs, Go" echoed throughout Wrigley Field, and fans longed to prolong the ecstasy.
"Wouldn't it be great if we had something that could carry on this feeling after the season?" says Stuart Wolf, one of the co-producers of the new CD.
Cub fans Jim Kreutzer (CEO of Wind Chill Development), his daughter Lindsey (who came up with the CD idea), Bud Newton (a Cubs historian) and Susan Schreiner (who handles sales) worked with Wolf to put together a collection of old favorites, broadcast highlights and new songs.
Steve Goodman's "Go, Cubs, Go" anthem joins cult classics such as "Hey, Hey, Holy Mackerel," "It's a Beautiful Day for a Ball Game," The Ides of March singing "Finally Next Year," and "Here's to You, Men in Blue," featuring members of the 1984 team. The group winnowed a list of more than 30 songs for the eclectic album, which includes jazz, rock, rap and folk music.
A new song called "Fukudome, Bring it Home" by Mark Harrod was played for the Japanese Consulate office, which endorsed the song after a couple of measures of a stereotypical Americanized version of Japanese music were removed, Wolf says. Fukudome gave his blessing and asked that some of the proceeds go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International in addition to Chicago Cubs Charities, Wolf says.
Harry Caray's last singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at the end of the 1997 season made the cut, as did a song by folksinger Chuck Brodsky called "A Letter to Harry."
The $14.99 CD is available online at www.takemeouttoacubsgame.com, as well as at some Walgreens, Jewel/Osco, Meijers, 7-Eleven and at Wrigley Field during games.
Meanwhile, for fans seeking a less organized, amateurish, free and totally unsanctioned musical outlet for Cubs fever, YouTube delivers everything from profoundly clever parodies to profanely clumsy outbursts.
There is one woman's melodic version of "Fukudome" sung to "Oklahoma." A haunting parody of Rihanna's "Umbrella" pays tribute to Lou Piniella … ella, ella.
An Elvis impersonator (and three female backup singers) perform "And the Cubs Fans Cry" to the tune of "In the Ghetto." A comedian tweaks Frank Sinatra's "Summer Wind" to croon about a "Cubbie Win."
Last year's sad (but prophetic) comedy parody of the 2005 World Series Champion White Sox theme song still tells Cub fans to "Please Stop Believing." Many Cub-hating Sox and Brewers fans perform original or parody songs -- often describing Cub-on-Cub sexual acts in graphic detail.
YouTube also features characters from the online game RuneScape performing an intricate dance routine to "Go, Cubs, Go." And myriad video baseball games show scenes of the Cubs winning the 2008 World Series.
Speaking of which …
"Our goal is to have a new version in 2009," Wolf says of the "Take Me Out to a Cubs Game" CD. "We don't want to jinx the Cubs, but certainly, if they have a successful end to the season, we'd want to capture that in a new song."
I'm already looking for the perfect word that rhymes with Zambrano.