Scottie Pippen built up a lot of goodwill in Chicago over the years, which is good, because he might have lost some of it during last night’s Cubs-Dodgers game. The Bulls legend was picked to sing the “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch of Saturday night’s historic NCLS Game 6.
Almost time to sing… @cubs #FlyTheW pic.twitter.com/3KQLNVZ203
— Scottie Pippen (@ScottiePippen) October 23, 2016
It is a famous Wrigley Field tradition, and no one really cares or even notices if you sing it well. As long as you know the words, you’ll be fine. Unfortunately, Pippen struggled with the whole “knowing the words” part.
It’s such a simple and well-known song that one might assume all he needs to do is show up and belt out the familiar tune. But when that microphone is in your hand, and it’s your voice coming out of the stadium speakers, without practice those familiar words might suddenly not be so familiar.
Thankfully, it seemed everyone at the game was belting out the song themselves, so all Pippen had to do was casually point the microphone out and pretend he was letting the fans share in the spotlight.
With how the game was going, it’s doubtful Cubs fans would have cared if Pippen got up there and sang, “Happy Birthday”. They were too jubilant, drunk, or both to care about much of anything outside of the game itself, and no one can really blame them for that.
Somewhere, Michael Jordan is shaking his head and thinking about all the ways he’d do a better job.
Pippen joins a long list of horrible singers, including Jeff Gordon:
(It’s not Wrigley Stadium, Jeff.)
The very, very, very best example of what not to do is Mike Ditka, who arrived late and then, well, here it is: