NEW YORK — Mets fans were encouraged to “strap in” this past weekend when the stadium organist treated them to an impromptu and seemingly endless rendition of the Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray,” sources bobbing their head to the throbbing beat confirmed.
“A fella can only play ‘Meet the Mets’ and ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’ so many times before he starts to go a little psycho. I had to switch up the setlist or else my head’d explode,” said Citi Field organist Gannon LeCarrie. “As far as I’m concerned, the Velvets are as big a New York institution as the team is, so why not combine ‘em? And, hell, if it takes me an extra 18 minutes behind the keyboard to do it, who gives a shit? You ever actually try and watch a baseball game? An epic-length proto-punk classic isn’t ruining a damn thing. Play ball.”
Members of the team were startled at the positive reaction the song garnered from the bleachers.
“At first, I was a little confused at the intense way the crowd was all chanting about ‘stained carpets’ and ‘sucking on ding dongs,’ I’ll be honest. Especially when they got to the part about ‘not hitting it sideways’ which I felt was a dig at our batting capabilities,” said starting Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, as he iced his knees. “But, the more I thought about it, anything getting the stands excited about the game is a good thing, I guess. I don’t know who this Sister Ray is, or what’s getting ‘whipped’ on, but one thing’s for sure: that chugging-ass riff will be stuck in my head for days.”
Longtime Mets mascot Mr. Met reminisced about his early friendship with the song’s composers.
“Boy, this brings me back. I was hanging out with Lou, Cale, Mo…the whole gang back at the Factory in the ‘60s. Warhol brought me into his studio when I was just a struggling mascot trying to pick up sporting goods store gigs. I’ll never forget, he said I had ‘a head destined for the canvas,’” said the famous mascot between cavorting-for-the-crowd sessions. “I was actually there for the recording of this track, and, I’ve never told anyone this, but, on minutes 8 through 9, my head is being used as the floor tom after it got knocked over and rolled too far away to get back in place. I still have the indents in my temple to remember it by.”
Emboldened by the support over his experimentalism, LeCarrie was seen prepping a performance of Steve Reich’s “Four Organs” for the seventh inning stretch.