The World Series Game 3 between the Dodgers and Blue Jays on Monday, Oct. 27, was the longest Major League Baseball game in history, leaving anxious fans wondering if it would ever end and if their team would take the lead.
While the game went on for a whopping 18 innings, leaving the sports commentators to talk about fruit platters in the downtime, Dodgers organist Dieter Ruehle was ready to meet the moment and quell some of the nerves with some laughs.
Ruehle performed songs on his organ that spoke to the anxiety in the stadium and for the fans at home, where dread was starting to become comical the longer the game went on. He played songs such as Coldplay’s “Clocks,” Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time,” and then Limahl’s “Never Ending Story” in the last inning.
Fans on social media were loving what Ruehle was throwing down on the keys, with one user jokingly posting a photo of the organist with the caption, “World Series Game 3 MVP Dieter Ruehle.”
Another user posted, “Give the organist at Dodger Stadium a raise. Just non-stop bangers with a sense of humor.”
This isn’t the first time that Ruehle seized the opportunity to use his organ for comedic purposes, either. Last year, Ruehle performed Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” during a game where a car was on fire in the Dodgers parking lot. The Dodgers were the first team to hire a full-time organist, Gladys Goodding, in 1942, when the team was still in Brooklyn, and have had many iconic organists since, including Helen Dell and Nancy Bea Hefley. Before the World Series wraps up, here are three quick things to know about Ruehle, who’s earning his seat with some of the Dodgers’ greatest organists.
Musical background and style
An ESPN profile in April detailed how Ruehle became an organist after watching legendary Dodgers organists Dell and Hefley play the keys during inning breaks. As a kid at home, he would try to follow. While Ruehle took some music classes at Burbank High School, then a few music theory and composition classes at community colleges, he mostly self-taught and relies on the vibes and feel of the keys. He has a distinctive style that extends beyond the classic rock soundtrack sports fans are accustomed to hearing on the field and in the stadium, performing songs from Hechizeros Band’s “El Sonidito” to Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather.” His musical prowess has landed him roles in six Olympic competitions and on Kobe Bryant’s children’s podcast, “The Punies.”
Plays for the Los Angeles Kings
In addition to being the organist for the Dodgers since 2016, he’s also the music director and organist for the Los Angeles Kings. But before he got the official job title, he had the chance to perform at a Kings game after he turned 12. According to ESPN, the local ABC7 station was running a “sports fantasy” segment, and he wrote them asking whether he could play hockey with the Kings or if they’d let him play the organ. The team offered him a shot at the keys, and he played a portion of their game on Nov. 19, 1980. In a December 2021 Kings game, Ruehle played “Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang” by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg when Snoop was in attendance, which led to a shoutout on the Kings broadcast.
Decoder this
For Dodgers fans who hear an organ song but are blanking on the name, there is a place to find some answers. In 2019, Dodgers fans started a Twitter page dubbed the Dieter Decoder, whose profile bio says it is, “For fans of @DieterRuehle @Dodgers organist & best in @MLB who are always delighted, sometimes bewildered by his song choices. Let’s figure it out together!” The pinned profile post asks fans at a Dodgers game to tweet the account what Ruehle is playing, its relevance to the player, the action or occasion, and, if they don’t know, to ask under the post and have others answer if they know the song.