On April 26, 1941, peals of organ music rang out across a baseball stadium for the first time. Soon the ballpark organist was one of the game’s most valuable players.
The sun is setting behind the left field stands at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, and the not-too-distant San Gabriel mountains are disappearing into a purple twilight mist beyond center field. It’s another Dodgers sellout, which in COVID-19 times means just 15,000 of the stadium’s 56,000 seats are filled. Right now they’re chanting “Let’s Go Dodgers” in cadence with the stadium organ, urging the home team to prevail over the visiting Colorado Rockies.
But I’m not really here to see the newly crowned World Champions do battle. The crack of the bat, the thud of a 97-mph pitch in the catcher’s glove, the boos that accompany every close strike for a home team batter—all these are just background noise to what