The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Mayor says he’s a Springsteen groupie
Springsteen fan pursues The Boss
In his office at Lorain City Hall, Mayor Chase Ritenauer keeps a photograph of himself with President Barack Obama.
It measures about 6 by 9 inches across and sits on a shelf.
The photograph of Ritenauer and Bruce Springsteen is a 16-by-20inch poster hanging on the wall, above a guitar signed by the legendary New Jersey rocker.
For Ritenauer, it’s one thing to meet the president.
It’s another thing entirely to meet The Boss.
“I am without question a Springsteen groupie,” Ritenauer said. “I’ve seen the guy 34 times live. I’ve seen him more times than I am years old.”
Ritenauer, 32, and his family are longtime members of the Lorain community.
Outside City Hall, the mayor is part of at least two other communities: diehard fans of Springsteen’s music and lovers of the Chicago Cubs in baseball.
A native of Cleveland Indians territory, Ritenauer said he likes that team and roots for them.
But he has never made a secret of his love for the Cubs. Ritenauer’s office also contains wall art photographs of Wrigley Field, the team’s home stadium in the Windy City.
“It used to be like a novelty — the mayor is a Cubs fan, the Cubs are terrible, lovable losers, they’re in a different league than the Indians,” Ritenauer said.
“It was all OK till they met in the World Series. Which I never thought, in my life, I would ever see that World Series,” he added.
As a youth, Ritenauer said after school he sometimes would turn on the television while doing homework. Cubs played many daytime home games that were broadcast on WGN, called in the unique
voice of Harry Caray.
“So I just started following the Cubs,” Ritenauer said.
Becoming a fan
He was a fan before the 1998 season when Cub Sammy Sosa became a household name as he and Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals chased the single season home run record of Yankee great Roger Maris.
In his office, Ritenauer has a smaller photo of himself as a boy with his father, John.
It is from a father-son trip to Chicago when the Indians traveled there to meet the Cubs in the start of inter-league play. John Ritenauer is wearing a Cleveland Indians shirt as his son wears a Cubs cap.
“I just have always liked them,” Ritenauer said. “When my dad took me to Wrigley, that was signed, sealed and delivered. I mean, Wrigley Field, Cubs, just the history. I just became an instant fan. Most of the time they were terrible.”
Since 1998, when that picture was taken, since then, has made at least one trip a summer to see the Cubs play at home, except in one year, 2002.
Ritenauer recalled once asking his father, John, if the Cubs and Indians could ever play in the World Series.
“My dad laughed at me, He was like, ‘Oh yeah, they could, but that ain’t ever going to happen,” Ritenauer said. “Well, it did.”
Apart from the team, Ritenauer said he admires Cubs Manager Joe Maddon. Before joining Chicago, Maddon helped turn the Tampa Bay Rays into a winning team and he instilled a winning culture into the Cubs dugout.
For other sports, Ritenauer follows professional tennis; it’s another love shared with some family members, including his late grandmother, Rosemary. Among his favorite players is Swiss great Roger Federer, who this year won two grand slam titles at age 35.
“In tennis years, he’s old,” Ritenauer said about Federer. But Federer uses his experience and efficiency to top younger players.
“Whether you’re talking about Joe Maddon or Roger Federer or Bruce Springsteen, the people who excel at what they do is always something that has interested me and intrigued me,” Ritenauer said.
Following The Boss
After his election in 2011, Ritenauer had Springsteen on the soundtrack at his first swearing-in ceremony at the Lorain Palace Theater.
With Springsteen and the E Street Band, Ritenauer’s fandom started when the future mayor still was an Amherst Steele High School student from 1999 to 2003.
That time was after Springsteen’s heyday as a national rock n roll star, Ritenauer said, and he had heard many of the singer’s radio hits.
The turning point came in the aftermath of the historical attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Ritenauer, then a high school junior studying at Lorain County Community College, was driving home from his introduction to political science class at LCCC when he heard the news about the attacks in New York and Washington and the crashed airliner in Pennsylvania.
Springsteen responded with “The Rising,” his post 9/11 album that also was his first album in years with the E Street Band, his friends and fellow musicians.
“It was that response to 9/11 that got me really into Springsteen, his writing,” Ritenauer said. “He is a lyricist for the times and the ‘Rising’ album got me to explore deeper his entire catalog.” Springsteen grew up in Freehold, N.J., and named his first album for the coastal city Asbury Park.
“Whether it’s Freehold or Asbury Park or where have you, he sings about other towns too,” Ritenauer said.
“He really gets the issues that we face here and that’s really what has made him resonate with me, in that the songs he sings could be happening on a street corner in Lorain, Ohio,” Ritenauer said. “They could be about a night in Lorain, Ohio. It’s a very deep connection, so that has really gotten me. The rising really started my, I guess, deep dive into his entire catalog.”
Meeting in Portland
Apart from the concerts, the picture with Springsteen was part of Ritenauer’s quest to meet The Boss.
Last year, Springsteen published his autobiography “Born to Run,” a tome running more than 500 pages. It became a bestseller and fans instantly snatched up tickets for his book signings around the nation.
Ritenauer attempted to get tickets for a Springsteen appearance almost anywhere. When he tried to get tickets for an October signing in Portland, Ore., the website crashed.
When it was restored, his friend Derek Feuerstein, who also served as Ritenauer’s chief of staff, used computer skills and good luck to score tickets.
Ritenauer and his wife, Lisa, flew to that city at night. They spent the next day at Portland’s legendary Powell’s City of Books to meet the singer, then flew back to Ohio the next morning.
“So it was like literally a little over day trip all the way out to the West Coast,” Ritenauer said. “But, I got to meet Bruce Springsteen. That was a bucket list item for me, so all is well. It was unbelievable.”
Apart from the concerts, the picture with Springsteen was part of Ritenauer’s quest to meet The Boss.