As social media undertook its own task of informally picking an MVP during the World Series‘ epic Game 3 this week, a surprise candidate emerged… and we’re not even talking about the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ underdog relief pitcher Will Klein (although, sure, him too). We’re talking about Dodgers organist Dieter Ruehle, who stood along Shotei Ohtani, et al., when fans were discussing their favorite things about the grueling but thrilling game. Ruehle is practically legendary in baseball now for the wit inherent in his song cues, as well as for making sure the energy doesn’t flag in the stadium. And that was never more relevant than in a game that lasted nearly seven hours, with almost as much intrigue created by Ruehle’s canny choices as in whether anyone would ever score another run before daylight.
Ruehle’s choices aren’t always humorous. For instance, when Clayton Kershaw left the mound after his last regularly scheduled game of the season — and of his career — this year, the organist caught the mood by playing a bit of the Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony.” But more often than not, he’s offering his own amusing play-by-play, with obvious songs like “Walk Like an Egyptian” or “Walk of Life” during a walk — or far less blatant picks, like a song by the group 311 when the score is 3-1; “Piano Man” when it gets to be 9 o’clock on a Saturday night, “Clocks” for “We Can Work It Out” during a mound visit, or “I Am the Walrus” when Tommy Edman is up (because “eggman”/Edman… close enough).
With Game 5 just hours away on Wednesday, Variety talked with Edman about what it was like pulling up appropriate songs for a nearly record-length game like Monday night’s, and his thoughts about the organ’s importance in ballparks and humor’s role in his playing in general. (And since he is the king of Major League Baseball easter eggs, we had to ask if there is any mysterious significance to his repeat playing of Taylor Swift’s “Opalite,” or “Kpop Demon Hunters’” “Golden.”)
In all the social media threads about you during the World Series, we keep seeing Blue Jays fans being jealous, saying, “We need an organist back in Toronto.” We get spoiled in L.A. and don’t realize that not every team has one, but when the whole world is watching the Series, suddenly everyone is hyperaware.
That’s great to hear that, that people could actually hear and feel the difference. Obviously, I’m biased, but I feel it when I watch games from other places and they just have recordings. To me, it just automatically just feels like it could be so much better. You could add some life, some personality to a venue that doesn’t have live music. But fortunately, a good amount of ballparks still have the organ, and those fans get to experience it. It’s kind of like I’m soundtracking to what happens out there on the field, just reacting. Because the game isn’t scripted, it’s live. So what better way to do it than with a live accompaniment?
Of course it’s not totally uncommon for a Dodgers game to go into a couple of extra innings. But in Game 3, it was a whole different-level — overtime overtime — and eventually it’s appropriate to bring out some songs that allude to the epic length. Are these songs you’ve already just got in the back of your mind, even though there wouldn’t be many chances to use them?
Well, I have a few in the back of my mind, if games last a long time. For example, if the game goes three hours, I usually play the “Gilligan’s Island” theme because the lyrics talk about “a three-hour tour.” When we hit the six-hour mark Monday night, I was thinking, “Wait a minute, what if I played ‘Gilligan’ again because it’s three hours times two?” I thought that was some kind of deep (reference)… but actually, to my surprise, people noticed it, and I was like, yes, they got it!
And then some other things just came to mind, like Billy Joel — “The Longest Time,” I played a little bit of that. And then I played the theme to “The Never Ending Story,” because it felt like the game was just like never-ending. That just occurred to me, maybe a few minutes before I played it — I thought, “Oh, this would be great.” So fortunately I already knew how to play those songs and don’t have to learn ’em on the spot.
“Never Ending Story” can’t be one that you pull out very often, though.
Not very often, no. But I used to play it because there was a baseball player named Trevor Story who played on the Colorado Rockies for a long time, and whenever they came here, I played a little bit of that. But yeah, I don’t get to play it often.
People were collectively adding on social media to playlists of the songs you were getting in there in Game 3: “Final Countdown,” “All Night Long,” “Just Can’t Get Enough”… which just sounds great in an organ snippet whether it has anything to do with the game or not.
Yeah. I love Depeche Mode. “I just can’t get enough of this baseball game,” right? I just try to add little, little, little, little things here and there and hopefully it might bring a smile to the fan’s face if they catch it.
People who have baseball as their favorite sport often have it because of the parts of the game that cannot be duplicated in any other sport. And that applies here: You’ve got a very tense game, and yet, in a way, you are introducing bits of comedy into it, without taking away from the tension. There is just no comedy allowed in football.
But if I may, though, I think the thing is, when you do it with the organ, it’s not exact — it’s more subtle. It’s not in your face, with the lyrics blasting. And obviously we have the technology to play all the tracks, right? But with the organ, it’s a little more subtle and it lets it remain part of the game, but yet not bigger than the game. Because people are coming here to see the World Series. And so the organ, I think, can add that fun comedy, if you will, here and there, but in a subtle way that doesn’t take anything away. We’re not bigger than the game, anyway. That’s what I think.
Do you have any estimation of how many people are getting the references or in-jokes, if they’re not on social media and just sitting there enjoying the game? Obviously most people are not tuned in to that. Is it 10% or 20%?
I don’t know how many are. All I know is, I have a social media account — just the one; I got to be too overwhelmed having more than one — on Twitter, or X. The 14th inning stretch that I posted from the other night has over 140,000 views. I’m like, wow, that’s a lot, you know? But I’m not posting everything. I can’t record and play. So I’m not sure how many people are noticing those things. Sometimes it’s more than I think. I’m pretty pleasantly surprised sometimes.
You did have a 14th inning stretch Monday night? Those of us watching at home were cheated out of that.
Yeah, every seven innings we play “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” so when we hit the 14th inning, it was time to stretch again. People just got such a kick out of it, because the normal stretch is a pretty happy part of coming to a baseball game, and now we get to do it again a couple hours later, and it’s such a rare thing.
Any Taylor Swift fan who’s been to a game you played recently immediately recognized “Opalite,” from her new album. And you’ve been doing “Golden” and “Soda Pop” from “Kpop Demon Hunters.” Are those in there as references of some sort, or just because they’re fun songs that people are currently loving?
No, just because they’re fun. Although sometimes with “Golden,” I might do it after a pop-up, because we’re going “up, up, up,” and the ball’s up, up, up. I might do it then, but that’s kind of a stretch. But usually with the current things, I’ll just play them because they’re currently popular. There’s not really always a tie-in or a connection. Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn’t.
With “Opalite,” I started looking it up, like: Are there blue-shaded opalites, and that relates to Dodger blue? And of course there are. But I was overthinking it.
No, that’s totally cool. I mean, I’ll get that on social. People will say, “Oh, you played it for this reason,” and I really didn’t, but that kind of does work, you know?
I am immediately attuned to recognize the “Twin Peak” theme, but that one wasn’t easy to figure out the meaning on first thought. Then there’s one I would never recognize, but many people do — a song from “The Goofy Movie” called “I2I.”
The song’s called “I2I” — pronounced “eye to eye” — but it looks like “1-2-1.” And on the scoreboard will say “one ball, two strikes, one out” when that happens, so that’s when I play “I2I.” It was really surprising how many people caught onto that. At the same time, a lot of people were curious like, what’s the connection here? When I explained it, they’re like, “Oh yeah, of course.”
People loved hearing the Ewok celebration song in Game 3, which you’ve played before.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Usually I’ll play that near the end of a game because that song took place at the end of “Return of the Jedi,” and I thought, okay, usually in the eighth or ninth inning, when we’re about to win, it’s kind of a happy, celebratory song, so I thought, “Oh, maybe I’ll play it there.” I also play “Con te partirò,” which is “Time to Say Goodbye,” by Andrea Bocelli. So that’s another one I’ll do in the ninth inning. As long as we’re winning.
In Game 3 people kept wondering, are the players getting tired? What about you — were you getting tired? Was is it taxing you?
Yeah, we were all getting tired. Even the organist got tired. But adrenaline got me through it and my love of this job got me through it. You know, it takes energy, and I’m always thinking ahead… So yeah, I was tired. But it was a fun tired, for sure.
We’ll hear more from you in the final home game of the series Wednesday night. But the Dodgers is not your only gig. We can look forward to hearing you with the Kings in the-off season, right?
Yeah. Actually I have a Kings game tomorrow. Hockey season starts in October, so we’re on our third or fourth game now, and so yeah, a Kings game tomorrow and another Kings game Saturday. They’re both fun. They’re very different, obviously, you know, summer, winter, outdoors, indoors; one can be hot weather, the other one’s in the arena, where it can be pretty chilly. They’re different but each fun in their own way, that’s for sure.
(To read Variety’s interview with country star Brad Paisley about coincidentally singing the National Anthem at the two longest World Series games in history, click here.)
