Robert Bardwell, also known as "The Phantom of
Jacobs Field
{{Infobox stadium
, name = Progressive Field
, nickname = ''"The Jake"''
, logo_image = Progressive_Field_Logo.svg
, logo_caption =
, image =
, caption = Progressive Fiel ...
," is the former organist for the
Cleveland Indians.
Bardwell was hired in 2001 as the Indians' music director,
a position that also required him to serve as the organist, playing familiar songs such as
Take Me Out to the Ball Game,
the
Tarantella, the
Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bo ...
,
O Canada and the
Charge fanfare,
as well as
God Bless America, which
Major League Baseball required teams to play following the
9/11 attacks.
Because the stadium did not use a traditional organ, Bardwell played an
Ensoniq
Ensoniq Corp. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments, principally Sampler (musical instrument), samplers and synthesizers.
Company history
In spring 1983, former MO ...
keyboard with a classic ballpark organ sample stored on a
floppy disk
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
.
During pitching changes and delays, he played other music to pump up the fans, and he was also tasked with playing favorite songs selected by players who were up to bat.
Bardwell became something of a local celebrity in 2002, when ''
The Plain Dealer'' ran a feature piece dubbing him "The Phantom of Jacobs Field."
He left the Indians in 2006.
References
Musicians from Cleveland
Living people
Stadium organists
American male organists
Cleveland Indians personnel
21st-century organists
21st-century American male musicians
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American keyboardists
{{US-keyboardist-stub