Okay, I probably should be worrying about other things, but other things have had me so terribly worried lately that I’ve had to seek diversion. The question I’m posing here is not one I sought, but it popped into my head, and it’s now stuck in my brain like a song-worm, and I’m hoping I can find an answer.
So, you know those little ditties that the organist in baseball parks plays during the slow times when they’re trying to get the crowd engaged? One of them is a clapping pattern that I don’t recall hearing anywhere other than at baseball stadiums. That is what is bugging me; it seems to be a baseball only thing, and I don’t recall hearing it anywhere else. To the best of my knowledge it’s not a riff from a popular song, old or new. I don’t remember it as a playground jump rope pattern, or from any other children’s game. Who came up with it? And why only baseball?
Here’s the riff:
Which sounds like this:
I’m really hoping that someone can help me find information on the origin of the riff, and perhaps an idea as to why it seems to belong uniquely to baseball. This may not be the kind of knowledge that brings me power, but it may help me get this riff out of my head so that I can get back to my regular worrying about other things.