Play me a song
Braves organist charms fans, amuses players
ATLANTA » Matthew Kaminski had intended to play a Grateful Dead song as the walk-up music for Houston’s starting pitcher at the World Series.
Luis Garcia. Jerry Garcia. Get it?
Then, after getting a glimpse of the rookie pitcher’s unique windup against the hometown Atlanta Braves, Kaminski was suddenly stricken with a bit of inspiration.
“Listen to this,” he said, flashing a mischievous grin, his hands stirring eagerly on the keyboard.
As the Astros’ Garcia strolled to the plate in Game 3, Kaminski broke into a playful version of “Rock-A-Bye-Baby” — the perfect musical accompaniment for a rookie righthander whose extended wind-up has been compared to someone rocking a child.
“I came up with that on the spot,” Kaminski would explain later, providing a quick primer on his quirky process for working out the melody to songs at a moment’s notice. “There are times when I get to play a song for the first time in front of 40,000 people.”
There are plenty of stars at this World Series, from Freddie Freeman to Jose Altuve, but let’s give a shout-out to the bespectacled, 44-year-old jazz lover sitting behind the Hammond SK2 organ at Truist Park.
He has no ambitions of being a star — “when someone goes into jazz, they’re not thinking of becoming famous” — but Kaminski has pulled off an impressive musical feat.
He’s made the organ cool again.
Kaminski’s eclectic taste in music, and his witty selections when opposing players come to the plate, have made him a bit of a cult figure around the suburban Atlanta ballpark.
Even Braves players pay attention to the songs Kaminski is playing for the other guys.
“I do notice it,” outfielder Adam Duvall said. “This guy is unique.”
A devoted band of social media followers eagerly await Kaminski revealing his planned selections on social media when a new team is coming to town, though all picks are subject to change.
Luis Garcia, for instance was initially supposed to get the Jerry Garcia-penned Dead song “Casey Jones,” but that idea was scuttled in favor of the song that every sleepless parent knows by heart.
Guessing why Kaminski picks a song has become a game within the game, with everyone from more than 22,000 Twitter followers ( @bravesorganist ) to the visiting media weighing in on the connection between player and tune.
Given Kaminski’s extensive repertoire — he has a master’s degree in music from Georgia State University and loves everything from 1960s Beach Boys to timeless polka ditties — that is often a tall task.
“I choose songs that I think work best on the instrument,” he explained. “Some songs just don’t work that well on the organ.”
Kaminski can’t to go too deep into his catalogue
— the guessing game doesn’t really work if no one has ANY idea what he’s playing — but he clearly enjoys the perplexed looks when someone tries to figure out why, let’s say, he’s playing the “M(asterisk) A(asterisk)SH” theme for Astros slugger Carlos Correa.
“His name is Correa. Which sounds like Korea. ‘M(asterisk)A(asterisk) S(asterisk)H’ was based in Korea,” Kaminski said.
He’s not afraid to push a few buttons, either, though he’s always quick to point out that it’s all in
good fun.
When Altuve led off Game 3, Kaminski regaled him with the nursery rhyme, “I’m a little teapot, short and stout.” Altuve is one of baseball’s shortest players at 5-foot6.
“It’s just a kids’ song,” Kaminski said. “To me, that’s not mean-spirited. That’s about having home-field advantage.”
In fact, most visiting players seem to recognize that’s all in good fun.
Kaminski still remembers the reaction of nowretired outfielder Jayson Werth, who grew out his
hair and sported an enormous, Grizzly Adams-like beard.
Or, to Kaminski’s eyes and then to his ears, a more biblical figure.
“He kind of resembled Jesus,” Kaminski recalled. “So I played a lot of ‘Jesus Is Just Alright’ for him.”
Werth was clearly listening.
“He would tell (former Braves catcher) Brian McCann that he couldn’t believe I just played that song for him,” Kaminski related. “He wasn’t really complaining. He thought it was funny.”