Chicago Cubs Gary Pressy calling it quits after 33 years

Chicago Cubs organist Gary Pressy will hang it up this year, his 33rd year in the business. He will finish his career against the St. Louis Cardinals this weekend.

I lived longer than the Chicago Cubs Gary Pressy has been the organist for the team. Pressy has been tickling the ivories for 33 years, I’ve been alive 40. And while I don’t recall my first few years as Cubs fan, I feel like he been part of the Cubs forever. Even the great Harry Caray mentioned him by name in his early years.

But alas, he’s calling it quits after 33 years as the Cubs organist. He’s played ‘Take me out to the ballgame’ in the seventh inning stretch for a cast of characters. Ozzy Osbourne, Cookie Monster, Mike Ditka and more. The one he remembers most?

"“[Mike] Ditka is No. 1,” Pressy told the Tribune about his favorite guests. “He ran a little late, coming up the ramps on his artificial hip, grabbed the mic from Steve Stone and did a polka version. Then we scored a lot of runs.“Everyone asked, ‘What did you think of Ditka?’ I said: ‘He just put it on the map.'” (h/t ESPN)"

I remember Pressy for maybe a small thing, perhaps not. But the tempo for how he adapted to the seventh-inning stretch singers. He didn’t play it the same every time. When someone was nervous about singing the stretch, he played it fast. When someone was baked out of their mind (looking at you, Ozzy), he kept the tempo slow.

"“I’ve been there a third of a century, 33 years, and I think the cup is full,” Pressy told the Chicago Tribune on Friday. “I was debating it back and forth, but I really just wanted to spend more quality time with my family. Around the All-Star break I really got to thinking about it and made my decision."

He’s being honored at the end of the last homestand, which ends Sunday. Being with a club for that long and never missing a game in 2,680 and counting? It’ll likely be a grand sendoff. Well, if only a temporary one.

"“I’m hoping my last appearance this year will be at another parade,” Pressy told the Tribune. “That would work out.”"