One of the most beloved yet most taken for granted aspects of the in-park baseball experience is the musical experience, specifically the organ. This year, MLB 14 The Show includes real music from real-life MLB organist Bobby Cressey, who sometimes plays the organ at Padres home games.

Monty Mudd, music supervisor of MLB 14 The Show, had nothing but compliments about Cressey and his talents. While attending a Padres game at Petco Park, Mudd says he immediately thought Cressey was a good fit for The Show. 

"Bobby is truly a student of baseball organ," Mudd said, "He knows the score and is a huge fan to boot, plus he is not afraid to inject his own personal style.  He was very enthusiastic about contributing his talents, and we were just as excited to pull from his experience.  This is just another example of how we strive to bring that extra level of authenticity to MLB 14 The Show."

We recently got a chance to ask Cressey a few questions about his experience working on the game and how he approaches being an organist for a professional baseball team. Here is our conversation:

Operation Sports (OS): Who is Bobby Cressey and what Do you do?

Bobby Cressey (BC): I am a keyboardist and producer who was born in San Diego, has lived all over the world, but now lives in San Diego doing what I love --- making music for a living.
 
OS: How did you become an organist for the Padres, or any MLB team for that matter? How did you get to that level?

BC: I'm sure every MLB organist has a different story to tell about how they ended up with their dream gig. I can only tell mine. I was at a special preview night for the Padres in January 2010 where the team was meeting with diehard fans to showcase some of the ideas they had for the upcoming season. One of the things they mentioned they were going to try that year was 'Throwback Thursdays', which would be day games with tons of live organ music.

When I heard this I knew it was the chance of a lifetime and I made a beeline for the team CEO who was on the field. I asked if they had an organ player yet and he said they didn't. I gave him my card, shook his hand, and proceeded to hound and harass the entertainment people until I got an audition and landed the gig. As far as how you get to the level where you are 'qualified' to be an MLB organist is concerned, there is no official test, but there are two indisputable prerequisites. You must love music and be skilled at it, and you must love baseball. Fortunately these are 2 of my biggest passions in life, which is why I was certain that this would be the gig for me.
 
OS: When you aren't being the organist for the Padres, is there anything else you do that keeps you busy?

BC: As the team doesn't have organ at every home game, playing the organ for the Padres is only a part time gig. Even if I did play at all 81 games, that would still be less than a quarter of the year, so I'm sure most of the other MLB organists do different things to round out the year. Fortunately my musical tastes and abilities are broad and I keep a very busy schedule when I'm not playing at Petco. I perform all over Southern California with different jazz, reggae and top 40 groups throughout the year. I also produce music for film and television as well as teaching a little bit. The variety keeps my life interesting. Everything has to take a back seat for the ultimate gig -- playing organ for the Padres.

OS: What was your first reaction when Sony contacted you about being a part of MLB 14 The Show? had you ever heard of or played the game before they had contacted you?

BC: When the guys from the Sony SD studio first approached me about the possibility of creating some music for the game, I was thrilled. With my studio recording experience, knowledge of the way the organ interacts with a baseball game and lifelong love of video games, It was one of those situations -- and trust me, this doesn't happen all the time -- where I knew it would be the perfect job for me. I had absolutely heard of the game before they approached me. I vividly remember their TV ads for the 2013 game which I loved, especially the Buster Posey one. I was blown away by how amazing the game looked.
 
OS: What was the experience like working with the guys on The Show team? What do you hope your contribution will do for gamers?

BC: I guess the word I would use to describe working with the SD studio music team would be 'effortless'. We all went out to lunch for an initial meeting and I immediately found myself vibing with these talented people both personally and creatively. That for sure doesn't always happen. They are a laid back bunch of dudes (which is very So Cal) but they also work their asses off. From an outsiders perspective, it seemed to me that this working crew was a very well oiled machine. As far as what my music will do for gamers is concerned, I hope they find themselves immersed in the experience and for it to feel as much like a real baseball experience as possible. I kept the live performance aspect of it intact, with the occasional wrong note and a looseness to the timing. We could have easily made every note perfect, but that wouldn't be true to life. We want gamers to feel like they are at a stadium listening to a real organ player, not a computer.
 
OS: What songs did you contribute to the game?

BC: I wrote a bunch of longer songs for inning breaks and pitching visits as well as a giant batch of shorter charges, clap tracks and tension builders. The latter batch of short cues has all the standard baseball cliches in there as well as some Bobby Cressey signature originals.

The longer songs were really a lot of fun to produce. There are some fun interpretations of old American classics in there. I would go nuts passing the melody between the manuals and coming up with kooky counter lines and stuff. The musicians out there will really enjoy that. I also wrote a bunch of original songs with different styles and organ registrations. I wrote one in a 1930s super organ cheese style and called it 'Dear Old Agnes'. I wrote another one with chords similar to something you'd hear in an 80s/90s Japanese video game menu screen and called it 'Tokyo Slugger'. I also wrote some that are specifically baseball themed. One song I wrote is called 'Tommy John' because last year our team had 2 or 3 Tommy John surgeries. Only baseball guys would know what that means. And of course I cut 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame' which goes without saying.
 
OS: Would you like to contribute more to the game in the future? Are there any particular songs you'd like to see in the game in the future?

BC: I am 100% interested in contributing more to this game in the future. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done in my career. I don't think there are any songs in particular that I think are missing from the game or that I wish were in there but aren't. There are a couple songs commonly used at baseball games that are tough to license, but I don't think the game suffers for not having them in there. I think what's more important is that the songs that ARE in there have an authentic baseball vibe to them, and on that front I think we did a great job.

OS: When did you get interested in baseball? Any awesome backstories about your experiences with the game growing up? What was your first MLB game experience growing up?

BC: I grew up playing little league and going to Padres games so baseball has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I was three when the Padres went to the World Series in 1984 and I know my family was into it though sadly I don't have any memories of it. My first Padres game came when I was probably eight or nine years old. My uncle took me to what seemed like a cavernous Jack Murphy Stadium (now Qualcomm Stadium where the Chargers play) and I watched our Padres get beat by the Pirates.

I remember how massive the stadium felt to me at the time and how cold I was in the shadows. I remember my mom listening to The Padres on the radio and hearing the voices of our play by play guys on the radio -- Jerry Coleman and Ted Leitner. I can still vividly hear some of their calls in my head from that era, including the exact way Jerry Coleman said 'Benito Santiago', 'Tony Gwynn' and his signature 'Oh Doctor!'.  I also loved playing baseball. I was average at it but I really enjoyed playing and especially playing catch (still do).
 
OS: How important is the role of an organ player at baseball games in your opinion?

BC: I think the organ is a really important part of the baseball experience. Baseball is a game that celebrates tradition, and the organ is a huge part of that. They've had organ at ballgames since the 1930s and it has come to play a big role in the ballpark experience. In a game that stops and starts and has moments of extreme tension and anticipation (like a full count), it is used to heighten that tension and punctate things that happen on the field.

It is also used to dissipate that tension and to move things along like during a visit to the mound. It also adds a human element to the sound of the ballpark. In the 90s most ball clubs made efforts to modernize and brought in canned music and stock stadium jock rock. Many of them got rid of their organ players and lost something that many people cherished. Fortunately  some clubs have brought the organ music back. Some teams still have no organ, some have a mix of organ and a DJ, and some (maybe just one, the Cubs) have organ music exclusively.

I personally favor a mix of live organ and a DJ. I like the impact certain produced pop songs can have at points in the game, and I think home players can pump themselves up with their own walk up music. But I love to have the live organ in there playing for foul balls and charges as well as playing some songs between innings. The organist becomes part of the identity of the stadium (Gary Pressy at Wrigley Field, Nancy Faust for the White Sox, Nancy Bea Hefley for the Dodgers, Josh Kantor for the Red Sox), and anything you can do to make a stadium experience unique is a win for both baseball as a whole and for each individual team.