Friday, May 27, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Gordon's Wrigley act in need of fine-tuning

By JEFF WOLF
REVIEW-JOURNAL

NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon was booed this week at Wrigley Field when he flubbed "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CONCORD, N.C. -- Driving a race car at 190 mph in bumper-to-bumper traffic in front of 200,000 spectators is second nature to Jeff Gordon.

Several times he has casually handled subbing for Regis Philbin as a co-host of "Live with Regis and Kelly."

Not even being host of "Saturday Night Live" posed too great a challenge for Gordon.

But the winner of 72 NASCAR Cup races and four championships met his match earlier this week. Singing the anthem for America's pastime, well, that's like trying to race with a blindfold on.

Gordon committed a cardinal sin -- or more appropriately a Cubbies sin -- when invited to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and throw out the ceremonial first pitch Tuesday at Chicago's Wrigley Field.

Gordon began by calling the venerable ballpark "Wrigley Stadium" as he encouraged fans to sing along during the seventh-inning stretch. From there, it went flatter than a blown-out tire on his No. 24 Chevrolet.

He forgot to replace "home team" with "Cubbies" in a rendition of the tune that sounded like an engine misfiring.

"You know, I knew the words and even knew it was called Wrigley Field -- Wrigley Field," Gordon said after Thursday's NASCAR Nextel Cup practice at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

When Gordon arrived in the media center after qualifying second for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 he was greeted by a rendition of the song.

"I even knew that you had to say, 'Root, root, root for the Cubbies.' I knew all of that. I just got off the words and was trying to catch back up and just ended up looking like an idiot."

Gordon often is booed by NASCAR fans, but he's usually wearing a helmet and inside his race car.

"That's a tough crowd," he said of the Cubs faithful. "It was pretty awful, I admit that. But there was no alcohol involved. I knew the words."

Gordon said he was taken aback by being in the announcers' booth and not being able to hear the crowd singing.

"I was expecting to kind of get it started and then sing along with the crowd."

Gordon would never think of racing without practice, but he shunned an offer to rehearse the "Ballgame" routine.

"They asked me if I wanted to practice it one time, and I said 'no, let's just do it.' I wish I would have practiced. I can laugh about it now."

Just don't expect Cubs fans to cheer Gordon when he returns for the Cup race in six weeks at Chicagoland Speedway.