Red Sox organist’s livestream brings ballpark home

It’s 3 o’clock in Boston, about the time they’d be getting ready for the seventh-inning stretch at an afternoon Red Sox game. Josh Kantor settles onto the bench of the Yamaha organ in his living room and clicks on the iPhone to begin another show.

Since what would have been opening day, the Fenway Park organist has been streaming concerts of ballpark music and other requests on Facebook, boosting fans’ spirits during the shutdown.

“Part of the experience of going to a ballgame is chatting with your neighbors. And we’re in a time right now where there aren’t necessarily opportunities for people to have that,” Kantor said. “For half an hour a day, ideally people can just forget all their stresses and be a little bit refortified to then go face those stresses afterwards.”

A 47-year-old part-time library assistant and gig musician, Kantor has played the organ at Fenway since 2003. After COVID-19 halted this season, a friend suggested he put on a livestream concert March 26 to mark what would have been opening day.

Kantor took 100 or so song requests that day and played about 40 of them.

“As soon as we finished, we kind of knew that we had to do it because we enjoyed it so much,” Kantor said.

In addition to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” he plays “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” every concert. At its peak, his show has had about 19,000 tuning in.

Kantor will sometimes stump for donations to food banks. One viewer offered to donate $500 if he’d do a 10-minute Grateful Dead jam.