Lost Ballparks

Best of Lost Ballparks: Nancy Faust (White Sox Organist)

• Mike Koser • Season 1 • Episode 9

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(This episode was recorded in 2022). 

We’re curating the most downloaded episodes for new listeners discovering Lost Ballparks. If you’re a longtime listener, thank you for being part of this incredible community!

From 1970-2010 Nancy Faust was the organist for the Chicago White Sox. She was a trailblazer who made music an integral part of the ballpark experience. When Harry Caray first sang "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" at Comiskey Park, Nancy was playing the organ for him. She was the first to play "Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye" as an opposing pitcher walked off the field or after a White Sox home run. She is a Chicago treasure! 

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Mike Koser:

I'm Mike Koser, and this is Lost Ballparks.

Annoucer:

Podcast Open.

Gladys Gooding:

Hello, this is Gladys Gooding. For the past several years, I have been playing in Ebbets Field for our beloved bums, the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Mike Koser:

In 1942, Gladys Gooding became the first professional baseball organist playing an electric hammond organ for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. She stayed with the team until they moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season. You ask someone from that generation what they remember most about attending games at Ebbets Field, and they will most certainly mention Gladys Gooding, right alongside Red Barber, Vin Scully, the famous right field wall, Dodger legends like Jackie Robinson, Pee-Wee Reese, Sandy Koufax, Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, and Roy Campanella. Before Gooding and her organ were moved to a glass box high above the crowd at Ebbets Field, she spent her first games situated right next to the Dodger dugout. Players would come over in between innings and request songs. Gooding was the first. Others followed. Jane Jarvis, who played for the Milwaukee Braves and the New York Mets, Eddie Leighton for the New York Yankees, Ronnie Dale for the Reds at Crosley Field, and then Nancy Faust for the Chicago White Sox, who became so much a part of the fabric of going to a game at Comiskey Park that fans couldn't imagine a game without her. Nancy was the White Sox organist from 1970 to 2010. And today, she's sitting at her organ here on the Lost Ballparks podcast.

Nancy Faust:

Is that you, Mike?

Mike Koser:

It's me, Nancy. How are you?

Nancy Faust:

Great, Mike. Is it just the two of us? Because I don't quite understand the Zoom technology.

Mike Koser:

It is, yeah.

Nancy Faust:

Because when we we get behind closed doors, or I could play just the two of us. (organ music playing) That's for you and me.

Mike Koser:

That's great. I love it. Thanks so much for uh for joining. Yeah, I really appreciate it.

Nancy Faust:

Oh, I really enjoyed listening to the trailer of your new podcast and hearing all those voices from the beyond. Oh, yeah. And I know it will appeal to so many people that have great memories and that want to know about the past.

Mike Koser:

41 years as the organist for the Chicago White Sox, much of it's been at Comiskey Park. How did you get the job?

Nancy Faust:

I was playing for different kinds of functions like banquets and dinners. And one of the functions that I played for was something that my mother wasn't able to do because she was a professional musician. So I took her place and it was attended by the general manager of the White Sox. His name was Stu Holcomb. So he actually heard me play at this banquet. I realized that this man of power from the ballpark was there. And I had friends in school. By the way, I was still going to school, North Park College. I had friends that encouraged me to follow up with a letter and let them know that I'd be interested should there be an opening. So I did. I wrote to Stu Holcomb and like that next year, he sent me a letter and said, Yeah, we'd like your services. I never auditioned or anything, but he actually did hear me play at a luncheon.

Mike Koser:

And thank goodness that your mom wasn't able to make it that night.

Nancy Faust:

I'll say, because she probably knew just about as little about baseball as I did. Although I think um I was more in tune to what were popular songs. My my mother played things like songs from musicals and old time songs, and I kept up all during college because it was just fun to play music that I heard on the radio. So it was just an easy fit for me. I really knew nothing about baseball, but I certainly could play anything. So if I got a suggestion, it was easy to do. And when I got my job, Stu uh gave me a list of players and he said, maybe you could play a little something as they approached the batter's box. And each song reflected the hometown of the player. And there I just remember Bart Johnson being from California. So I played "California. Here I come".

Mike Koser:

Now, when you first started in 1970, the organ was in the center field bleachers at Comiskey Park. Is that right?

Nancy Faust:

The organ was located in the center field bleachers. 1970 was very lowly attended, and it was a great year for me to break in. But the organ was placed outside with the people, and that was pretty um unconventional. And that was done by Bill Veeck, who hired the first organist prior to me, whose name was Shea Torrent. And he was hired in 1960. And Bill did something kind of strange by just placing the organ right outside with the fans. And that really worked to my advantage because I was able to get information that I didn't know about. It was kind of a form of, I guess, social media prior to social media, where fans could give me ideas of songs and give me ideas of what to play.

Mike Koser:

So, how would you make your way into Comiskey Park and to the organ each night? How would you get there?

Nancy Faust:

My goodness, that was so long ago. But I just probably walked all around the um, what would you call it, the concourse, all into center field, up a few stairs and into the center field bleachers. And the organ was in this little booth and it had tarps that came down at the side in case it should rain or be windy. I had a radio out there with me so that I could listen to the broadcast while I was trying to figure out players' names and things like that. I was trying to gain some information about the game just by listening to the broadcasts.

Mike Koser:

And so some folks may not realize, but long before the Cubs, Harry Caray was the play-by-play guy for the Chicago White Sox.

Harry Caray:

Hello again, everybody.

Mike Koser:

So you would have been listening to him out there in center field.

Nancy Faust:

Well, that's a good point. Although Harry didn't start until my second year. He was hired by Stu Holcomb as well. So I really enjoyed listening to Harry's broadcast. He was a very colorful. And it was Harry that picked up on some of the songs that I play. And he'd say, Oh, listen to that. We should actually get that organist where she has a better accessibility to the fans. And so that I think he actually encouraged management to move me in to Behind Home Plate, which was my final resting place. No, it was my perch.

Mike Koser:

So one night in 1977,

Annoucer:

this is W M A Q Chicago.

Mike Koser:

The Kansas City Royals are in town.

Harry Caray:

Harry Caray, Jimmy Pearsall, we go on to the bottom of the sixth.

Mike Koser:

And you are about to make ballpark history because as their pitcher begins to struggle and eventually is taken out of the game, as he makes his way to the dugout, you decide to play.

Nancy Faust:

Nah, nah, hey, hey, goodbye. And, you know, that was the day when uh well, when Bill Veeck owned the team and the fans were just loose, you know, and they responded so well. And because we were vying for first place with Kansas City, they just rather than clapping along is what they normally did when I would play that song, everybody just burst out in songs. And um, the effects were just phenomenal because prior to that, the only thing fans would sing along to was take me out to the ball game or the national anthem. And so it was rather intimidating, I'm sure, for the pitcher. I don't remember who the pitcher was.

Mike Koser:

Poor guy.

Nancy Faust:

Yeah. And so, but it caught on, and the media said, Well, what was that? You know, what was that you played afterwards? And actually, I thought the name of the song was Shanana, but that's close enough. I just knew it was something that was short, lent itself to hand clapping. And I I learned later it was Nana, hey, hey, goodbye. Became synonymous with the team. And actually, then other ballparks picked it up and they play it on their PA system. The uh White Sox actually had a well, I should say Mercury Records had a like a little celebration at the end of the season, a ceremony where they presented me with a gold record of Nana Goodbye because they re-released the song because it became quite popular for sporting events and people wanted to hear it again, I guess.

Mike Koser:

Hearing that song played at Comiskey Park is a vivid memory for White Sox fans. And another one is of Harry Caray singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Now, I know a lot of folks think of Harry Caray singing that at Wrigley Field, but him grabbing the microphone, the PA microphone, and singing it along with the crowd actually began at Comiskey Park with you accompanying him uh on the organ.

Nancy Faust:

Well, that's right. Well, of course, I played it by myself until Harry uh people realized he was up in the booth, which was visible for me, which was great. And I could see him swinging that mic and leading everybody. And before you know it, I mean, he was the he was the main attraction for at least the people that could see him during Take Me Out to the Ball Game. And I guess it was Bill Veeck's idea to broadcast it over the whole park. You know, I mean, the story goes that he said, Oh, well, I'm not good enough. And Bill Veeck would say, Well, yeah, you're you are good enough. In fact, you're so bad you're good. So then that became the tradition was for Harry to be on the scoreboard, they'd show him, and he'd let everybody in take me out to the ballgame, and it just was just a highlight of the game.

Harry Caray:

All right, everybody. Okay, Nancy.

Mike Koser:

When you went to a game at Comiskey Park, it did not matter what the score was. You were going to stay until the seventh inning till you got a chance to hear that. And it was Bill Veeck's idea. Bill Veeck, of course, was the owner of the White Sox and one of the most colorful characters in all of baseball history, for sure. Can you talk to us about the ragtime promotion that he came up with that had a long-lasting effect on your life?

Nancy Faust:

Well, I certainly most certainly did because ragtime, well, let me say that all of Bill Veeck's promotions involved door prizes and it kept the fans engaged. Everybody wanted to win something. Usually it was silly things, but he had so many promotions going. And I think that's when he actually realized the value of my music because I I could play music that reflected whatever the promotion was. If it was Irish, German, Greek, or whatever, or if it was circus day, I'd be playing circus music or anti-superstition or whatever the promotion was. Well, it the the promotion you're talking about involved ragtime articles like an old time piano and an old time car. And they also brought a broken down donkey, I should say old donkey into the center field. And that was a door prize. But the donkey was not claimed. I happened to have a horse at the time. And I, when I realized that it wasn't claimed and it was still at the field at the park beneath the stands a couple of days later, I asked Bill if I could have that donkey rather than returning it to any let me have it. So that kind of created an interest in donkeys. And actually, after Rosita passed away, I acquired another donkey, which I still have. And right now, my donkey's name is Mandy now. I'm in her barn and the organ can't fit in the house. So we're keeping the organ in the barn, and that's where you are with me in Mandy's barn.

Mike Koser:

So that one moment ended up changing your life pretty dramatically.

Nancy Faust:

Yes, it did. So here we are in a barn. Thank you very much, Bill. And yeah, it did.

Mike Koser:

Oh, did Billy Martin, and I'm guessing this is probably when he was managing the Yankees, did he actually have the umpire call and ask you to stop playing because you were throwing off his pitcher?

Nancy Faust:

Well, he didn't ask the umpire to do that, but the umpire was aware that he was very in tune to uh the organist at another park prior to coming to our park, and he blamed the loss on the noise of the organ. And because the umpire was aware of that, when I played, the umpire's turnaround made me stop. And that at that time, Stu Holcomb called and said, Don't you're not doing anything wrong, you keep playing. So it was the umpire that was doing it in in respect to Billy Martin so that Billy Martin wouldn't get upset. And Billy Martin actually called me at the organ, I don't know, like the next day or something and said, Oh, honey, I just want you to know uh that wasn't me. So he was at kind of apologetic, didn't need to be. Everybody was catering to Billy Martin at the time, you know.

Mike Koser:

So Okay, Nancy, since we are lucky enough to have you at the organ, I thought we'd go through a few scenarios that might come up at a baseball game at Comiskey Park, and you could talk about what it is that you might play. For instance, if a batter draws a walk from a pitcher, you might play.

Nancy Faust:

Well, you know what I did actually, so that I wouldn't be at a loss. What I always had with me was I when I think of I would hear a song and it was good, I'd put it in a category. Here's some walk songs, just so I could, you know, refer to it real quickly. So here's a I became I'm out in Arizona now and I played for spring training. So here's my list from a couple of years ago. Here's I there were things like uh " long and winding road".

Mike Koser:

So if a pitcher was keeping his eye on a runner at first base, you know, and kept throwing it over there to check on him, you might play what?

Nancy Faust:

Oh, you mean if somebody was trying to steal a base?

Mike Koser:

All right, we have to go back here a few years for this one, but Ozzie Guillen walks to the plate.

Nancy Faust:

Oh, well, Ozzie Guillen. Well, sir, the he there were a lot of songs that applied to Ozzie when um oh because his last name looked like Gilligan, I would play uh Gilligan's Island. He probably didn't know what I was doing this for. And to tell you the truth, in those days I don't think players cared much what I was playing. I and I felt I was there for the entertainment of the fans. It was the fans that were surrounding me, giving me great ideas. And um that I just hoped that they were enjoying what they were hearing.

Mike Koser:

Omar Vizquel.

Nancy Faust:

Oh Let's well, because Vizquel sounds like physical, I'd something like that. But I have to tell you, Mike, I mean, it it wasn't just playing for players, and I did usually find something that would be applicable with the help of fans, who also gave me some insight about players, you know, that I may not have known. But like there was a player that went out with somebody named Lucille, and it was a big deal because Lucille wasn't uh the woman that he thought she was. So I played. Or somebody told me that um George Brett had had hemorrhoid surgery. So I played you can't sit down. Oh no, you can't sit down when he came back to play, of course, or I might have played a walk right in, sit right down, or something like that.

Mike Koser:

Or like if a cat would go across the field.

Nancy Faust:

Um, that was another thing that offered me songs was just playing teams from other towns where I could play their play Boston. I think Boston did that song, or I could have done something like this. Oh, there's just so many situations. And I once the scoreboard came along and I was brought in and I could see what was posted up on the scoreboard, I was able to play songs that reflected what the messaging was. If the message, oh, if there was a proposal to from one fan to another, every once in a while we had things like that, or I could play Love and Marriage, or if it was welcome the University of Wisconsin, or you know, welcome college night, then I could play all the college fight songs, or if the message was uh welcome the Coca-Cola uh group, or I'd play. Or, you know, if there was a rain delay, there was also a lot of um rain music. So whatever the situation, there was just uh music that was appropriate. Before the big Jumbotron came along with their own music, I was really in my wheelhouse. Those were just wonderful days. I guess it wasn't until I went back to Twitter that I realized people still remembered that style. I guess it revived me a little bit. And I'm really happy to know that there's people that still remember and just are interested.

Mike Koser:

For a lot of us who go to games now, it just sometimes feels like a wall of sound. You know, we miss those days where we could sit in the ballpark before the game, watch batting practice, and hear the organ play.

Nancy Faust:

I think when we think back, yeah, things seemed a lot easier and more slowly moving.

Mike Koser:

Ronnie Dale used to play at Crosley Field and would play the organ for maybe 20 minutes after a game and people wouldn't even leave. They would just sit in their seats and kind of reflect on the game and reflect on a Sunday afternoon. And again, it was just a simpler time.

Nancy Faust:

It was. And I just I my husband would say, you know, it's like people leave happy, even though um we may have lost. Because I know I played upbeat songs like morning train or just something that people could walk out happy to. I'm just being glad that they experienced a ball game, win or lose. It certainly was a place where so many bonds were formed. I saw that happen generation after generation.

Mike Koser:

How is it possible in 41 years you only missed five games? How on earth is that possible?

Nancy Faust:

Oh, I well, you know, there was only 81 games a season, so I only had to be healthy 81 days out of the year, you know. And I guess the hardest part about my job was just getting there because there was always uh traffic and things like that. And I didn't live very close to the park. But once I got there, it's just it was just a grand party. And um, the with well, the reason I missed the games was your fault, Eric. I um I had a child. And then so I missed my five games, but then the team went out of town, and by the time they came back, I was ready to go back to work. So that's why I missed my five games.

Mike Koser:

Now, there was a time in the 70s, correct me if I'm wrong, where you were approached by the Cubs to come play at Wrigley Field when you weren't playing at Comiskey Park. Is that true?

Nancy Faust:

Yeah, there was a lot of attention given to the music there in the 70s, and I did receive a couple letters from the Chicago Cubs and saying, Would you be interested in playing when the spec schedules don't conflict? And usually they didn't. And I thought that would be great. And I asked Mr. Veeck, and he said something like, Young lady, you're gonna have to pick one or the other. Uh, he just didn't want to share the music, I guess. I knew I had a good thing, so it was out of the question at the time.

Mike Koser:

So many years at Comiskey Park and and and so many memories. And like you said, people who started off as kids, then bringing their kids and then their kids' kids, it just uh and and who continued to let us know on Lost Ballparks about their connection to you and about their the music that you played, because there were a lot of years where the White Sox were not great, but people would still love to come to the ballpark because it was an experience.

Nancy Faust:

That's true, and music was part of it, you know. The and Harry certainly the having Harry broadcast the games.

Harry Caray:

Hello again, everybody. Harry Caray and Jimmy Pearsall from Comiskey Park, where we're gonna have a wild night tonight.

Nancy Faust:

Harry made you want to be there win or lose as well. I mean, he just said, you know, you can't be fun at the old ballpark. And uh there was just something about the atmosphere and having a good time and I want him to see the shirt you're wearing.

Harry Caray:

Can you make that out? It says outpatience. I think everybody should now hold up your legs. He's wearing short. Boy, oh boy, oh boy.

Nancy Faust:

Fortunately, he focused on every aspect of the game, and I was fortunate to be one of those aspects, and the music was.

Mike Koser:

So, how close were you to Harry Caray, by the way? I mean, was he was his booth right next to yours?

Nancy Faust:

Um, it was within eyesight. It was above me and then over. So if I looked up and over, I could see him. And he'd give me a nod and I'd know he was gonna dance. So that would be like after um, after taking out to the ball game. And we'd he'd do a little. But yeah, so it was really an advantage that I could see him. That was really great to be located in that position. And when he did take me out to the ball game, I gave I put it in a key that he could sing it. And I always gave him an introduction like this. And then when you do this, I know he's ready starting to go.

Mike Koser:

By the way, to play for?

Nancy Faust:

The player that I realized sparked most emotion from the fans was Richie Allen, definitely. I mean, I I don't know much about players, but I just knew that when he'd come up, they'd all stand, you know, and they'd go crazy. So I thought this guy's really magnetic, you know. I mean, he's he has charisma. And I realized it after watching him a few coming up to bat. So I I guess he'd be the most outstanding of the players, but there certainly are so many.

Mike Koser:

And you would play for Dick Allen. What would you play for him?

Nancy Faust:

It was a knee-jerk reaction. I thought this guy's like a superstar, and that song had been popular for just a couple of years, so I just played it. Seemed I played it, and then he'd hit a home run, and it was like, oh, well, that's a perfect match. And even Sports Illustrated mentioned it in an article about him. You know, they say, Oh, even the organist has a special song for him. And I think that was the first time I ever played a song based on a player's performance, you know, just because he was that good.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, I can I can picture him up to bat at a course crushing a home run into the left field seats at Comiskey Park. And it's so uh it's just to me it's sad that he did not see himself inducted to the Hall of Fame. And hopefully that will be rectified at some point.

Nancy Faust:

Well, certainly is a lot of hope for a next time, and it would be a real travesty if he doesn't make it next time.

Mike Koser:

In an article written last year, ESPN's Tanya Malinowski said, Nancy didn't use the organ simply to provide background music to the game. She used it to react to it, to score it like a film, to make the fans' experience even more sensory. That speaks for all who were able and lucky enough to watch you play at Comiskey Park.

Nancy Faust:

Well, thank you, Mike. It was it was my pleasure. It was I was, like I say, in my wheelhouse doing the one thing that I was able, felt I was able to do. I don't know what I would have done if baseball hadn't come along. So I'm very thankful for the sport and for primarily for the fans, actually. It was the fans that made my job such so enjoyable.

Mike Koser:

Thank you so much for spending some um some time with us today and for your and for your donkey for allowing us to invade her barn. So that we can record some of the podcast here.

Nancy Faust:

Well, we appreciate what you do too, because fans like to be like to remember the better times in their lives, and um, you certainly do provide that for them, providing a lot of wonderful memories. Thank you. I'm glad to be part of it.

Mike Koser:

Thank you, Nancy, and thank you to your son Eric and Joe for helping out today. We so appreciate them behind the scenes. Been an honor to talk with you again. And thank you. Take care. Thank you, guys. Have a great day.

Nancy Faust:

Take care. Bye-bye, Mike.

Mike Koser:

Hey, look, I'll just say this. If you spent your summers at Comiskey Park, the baseball palace of the world, I'm sure there are a few things that you'll always remember. Maybe going to McCuddy's after the game, Harry Caray, some interesting uniform choices, shorts, 1976, the exploding scoreboard at center field, and the iconic organ music of Nancy Faust. Nancy's on Twitter, by the way, at played41 at P-L-A-Y-E-D 41. All right, next week on the Lost Ball Parks podcast, you can't talk about baseball in the 70s and 80s without mentioning the Cobra, Dave Parker. Dave Parker grew up across the street from Cincinnati's Crosley Field. So you and your friends used to go in the Crosley Field parking lot and do what?

Dave Parker:

We would throw rocks at each other and be like two teams. We would do rock battles. One thing that we used to do with a flat rock, and we could make it go around the building, make it curve around the building.

Mike Koser:

One day while playing this game, a future baseball hall of famer who played for the Cincinnati Reds walked out of the clubhouse into the parking lot and caught them playing this game.

Dave Parker:

So we followed them every day. They were familiar with us.

Mike Koser:

Wait till you hear who that was and what happened next.

Dave Parker:

Never forget it.

Mike Koser:

We'll have that story for you next week. When Dave Parker, the Cobra, joins Lost Ballparks.

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Mike Koser

Host