You definitely want Cubs fan Eddie Vedder on Horroryour singing team, but maybe not so much your Cubs trivia team.
The Pearl Jam frontman -- born in Evanston, Illinois, where he lived until 9 or 10 years of age -- got the mic for the seventh inning stretch of this World Series Game 5 in Chicago. Before launching into "Take me out to the Ballgame," he opened his toast thusly:
Hey Chicago, Look at this, look at you! Wrigleyville is full, it's October 30th and there's baseball at Wrigley Field for the first time in history.
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Except ... not only has Wrigley Field hosted World Series games before, but that series went the distance. And it was a North Side soul-crusher.
As 1945 was wartime, the 2-3-2 home and away format was scuttled in favor of the more efficient 3-4. The Cubs won two of three in Detroit, heading back to Wrigley with a head of steam. Chicago dropped the first two, won one, and Detroit closed out its first World Series championship in 10 long years on Oct. 10 at Wrigley.
[It's at least possible that Vedder was talking about the exact dateof Oct. 30, which would be true -- but that just makes him guilty of overselling a fairly arbitrary and ultimately lame point of precedent.]
Vedder used the rest of his bask in a live national TV audience to call out a few Cubs dignitaries, including Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, manager Joe Maddon, owner Tom Ricketts and ... a backup catcher that's been in Chicago all of two seasons?
I know I want to thank Theo and Tom and Joe and the team for bringing the World Series to Wrigley Field 2016! And there's one guy in particular I wanna sing my ass off for and he's No. 3! He's behind the plate, he may have retired, but he'll never quit, Mr. David Ross. I'd like to belt this one out for you! It's his last game at Wrigley, let's sing it for him, let's sing it with Harry! C'mon hey!
Ross, a journeyman catcher who joined the team -- his seventh -- in 2015, is retiring when the series is over after 14 major league seasons. Vedder had apparently read somewhere about how the team and city have embraced the 38-year-old over his "ebullient personality, leadership and for the joy with which he plays the game."
The kind of thing a true Cubs fan would know. We're calling this one a tie, Eddie, and the tie goes to the rock star.
Jacob Lauing contributed reporting to this story.
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