Maybe he didn’t throw out an opening pitch like Dr. Anthony Fauci, but Bill Murray celebrated the heavily delayed opening day of Major League Baseball in a way that felt even more true to his character.
As Murray’s beloved Chicago Cubs battled the Milwaukee Brewers at a Wrigley Field emptied of fans (yet whose eerie, ghost-like applause was heard on television after good plays), the Saturday Night Live alum made an appearance from a sizable wooden living room beside an enormous stuffed bear.
Clutching — at times even throttling — his ursine friend, Murray shout-sang the ceremonial 112-year-old tune “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” midway through the seventh inning.
“We wanna hear you all the way out to the centerfield scoreboard!” Murray implored at-home viewers, before inelegantly diving into Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer’s familiar lyrics and melody.
The Evanston-born, Wilmette-raised actor and comedian changed the line “root, root, root for the home team” to “root, root, root for CHICAGO,” all the while screaming directly into the snout of the unnamed, enormous stuffed bear.
Murray ended his serenade with a call to action: “let’s get some runs!”
The Cubs may have been listening. Though they already led the Brewers two to nothing when Murray started singing, they added a little security in the eighth when first baseman Anthony Rizzo hit a home run.
Earlier in the game Rizzo offered some hand sanitizer to Milwaukee’s Orlando Arcia when he reached first base. Clean play!
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
— Inside Ghislaine Maxwell’s Life on the Lam
— Did Meghan and Harry Make Their Royal Exit to Tell the Truth About the Commonwealth?
— How Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell’s Friendship Became a Scandal
— The Stranger-Than-Fiction Secret History of Prog-Rock Icon Rick Wakeman
— Everyone Is Homeschooling. Not Everyone Is Doing It Like the Ultrarich.
— How Quarantine Introduced the Real Camilla to the World
— From the Archive: The Trouble With Prince Andrew
Looking for more? Sign up for our daily newsletter and never miss a story.