Critic's corner: 7th-inning stretch a bad scene
By Paul Sullivan
Tribune staff reporter
May 25, 2005, 7:27 PM CDT

A few years ago at Dodger Stadium I asked longtime Dodgers announcer Vin Scully if he was going to sing during the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field on an upcoming trip to Chicago.

"I did it once for Harry," Scully replied. "If I did it twice, it would be doing it for me, and that wouldn't be right."

Scully was one of the rare seventh-inning stretch performers who knew Caray and fully understood the significance of keeping his memory alive at Wrigley. Over the last eight seasons, however, hundreds of other performers have been "doing it for me," with no apparent end in sight.

I know it's part of the Cubs' tradition, and no one likes to mess with tradition at Wrigley … unless there are megabucks to be made.

But if anyone needs a reason to spike this celebrity-worshiping, product-selling moment from the daily schedule of events at Wrigley Field, Jeff Gordon's jump-the-shark rendition on Tuesday night may be the impetus for change.


I kinda agree with him. Some of these are getting rediculous. We need to have people with a bigger tie to the team and who know what they are doing. Thought the part about Carlos doing the computer work was hilarious.