The Wrigley tradition

Each morning as I'm getting ready for work, I tune in to ESPN's "Mike and Mike in the Morning." The hosts, Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic, have developed the radio personas of just a couple of regular guys who still are awed by the company they keep, even though they have become two of the best-known sports entertainment personalities in the business. Greeny is a best-selling author, to boot.

This morning, one of Mike and Mike's guests was Chicago Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney, who turned out to be a classmate of Golic at Notre Dame in the early '80s. They talked about the baseball team, then Kenney extended an invitation to the Mikes: Come sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the time-honored tradition at Wrigley Field.

Golic has been known to sing on the air and has a decent voice. He suggested Greeny's microphone be turned way down, or off. But either way, they seemed genuinely thrilled to follow in the footsteps of the late Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray, whose seventh-inning-stretch renditions of the song became legend.

Since Caray's passing the honor of leading the crowd in song has gone to various celebrities, not more than a few of whom have been ridiculed for their performances. Mike and Mike expressed some concern about how they'll be viewed. But they had little doubt that they'd do better than British rock singer Ozzy Osbourne, whose "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at Wrigley really is the stuff of legend. See and hear for yourself:



He should have sung "Crazy Train"! Maybe he'd have known at least some of the lyrics.