He played for about 10 minutes, and was offered the job about a week later. "On a freezing cold day in March, there's six feet of snow on the ground, and I'm sitting at the organ with Eddie Layton himself," Ed Alstrom recalled. Three weeks before the 2004 season was set to start, he called back and asked him to come audition. She spoke to the "head of scoreboard," and persuaded him to at least look at Ed's resume again. He sent a resume to Yankee Stadium, and his wife, Maxine Alstrom, actually called. The Yankees' organist since 1967, Layton had announced his retirement in 2003, and suddenly Alstrom's old dream seemed at least vaguely possible. I just said, 'This would be cool to do.' Every time I went to a ballgame I thought, 'This would be cool.' I didn't pursue it, because I didn't know how."Īlstrom followed his father to the organ when he was about 5 years old and "couldn't really reach the pedals yet." He grew up listening to a pair of classic ballpark organists, Jane Jarvis at Shea Stadium and Layton in the Bronx. "I never actually said, 'This is what I want to do, I have to do it,' and blazed a path to it. "It's the old dream come true," said Alstrom, a Montville resident who has had the job since Eddie Layton retired in 2003. On the weekend, Alstrom is at the keyboard.
NEW YORK – Tens of thousands of Morris County residents have heard Ed Alstrom play but very few know his name.Ī self-described "itinerant musician," Alstrom's talent has taken him through churches, synagogues, Broadway orchestra pits - and Yankee Stadium.Įver wondered where that pre-game concert comes from? Or the few bars of music that end every inning?
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