THE YIDDISHE CUP FIGHT SONG
Yiddishe Cup’s singer, Irwin Weinberger, wrote a sweetly nostalgic song about attending baseball games with his father, who was a Holocaust survivor. Irwin even mentioned The Rock in the song: Rocky Colavito. (Next up, a song about Harvey Kuenn for the Detroit market.)
Nowadays Irwin is laissez-faire on sports — unless the Indians get hot again.
Guys are supposed to talk about sports, and drink when they get together. I know this isn’t always a fact. One Yiddishe Cup musician calls sports a “cult.” This musician is proud he doesn’t know a thing about pro sports.
The whole town went ape-wire over the Cleveland Cavaliers. He didn’t care.
Some of the other guys did.
The previous time Yiddishe Cup was sports batty was 1997, when the Indians were in the World Series, and Yiddishe Cup was playing Simchat Torah gigs. (Goys: Simchat Torah is right after Succot.) We hid in the temple’s cloak room and caught bits of the action on a small portable TV.
Yiddishe Cup is not sports adverse. Yiddishe Cup plays a variety of fight songs, including The Yiddishe Cup Fight Song, which is a major-key freylekhs (hora) interspersed with the verbal chants of “Go Cup Go” and “De-feat Maxwell Street.” Maxwell Street, from Chicago, is our archrival. They probably don’t know that.
Here are other fight songs you need to know in our part of the Midwest:
1. Ohio State. Use “Hang On Sloopy” or “Fight The Team Across the Field.” Sometimes we hold off on “Hang On Sloopy” until the Buckeyes score. That’s the protocol. Be aware of this if a guest is listening to the game at a gig. If you play “Hang on Sloopy” before the Bucks score, it’s bad luck.
2. Michigan’s “The Victors” is a biggie. This tune is one of the most insipid tunes of all time. Or greatest — depending.
Other requests: Michigan State, “On Wisconsin,” and the Pitt fight song, which is not the same as the Steelers’ song.
Forget about Notre Dame unless they get a Jewish quarterback again.
Be flexible. For instance, Yiddishe Cup knows “Are You From Wooster?”:
If you’re from Oberlin or Denison or Wesleyan U.,
The Scots will take good care of you before they’re through.
Wooster has many international students and a lively Hillel. Check out The COW (The College of Wooster) with your 16 year old. Great school. Yiddishe Cup has played there a half dozen times.
Another good, small Ohio school is Kenyon, which Yiddishe Cup has played a few times. Kenyon has a Medieval dining hall out of Hogwarts. The school’s swim team dines there wearing big purple capes and eats tons of priceless food. Swipe that college ID card. Free food to students, $50,000 to Dad and Mom.
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Tomorrow:
DOUBLE PORTION OF MANNA . . . Bandleaders’ pay.
4 comments
Bert, Bert, Bert … how hip is this? How hip are you, with your klezmer blog and whatnot? Such funny stuff (which, sadly, I don’t have time to read through right now in the middle of my work day, and won’t have time to read later in the middle of my real life, but you know, jeez, don’t let that discourage you, what I’m seeing is totally PRIMO quality, Grade A, possibly even AA ). Has no one else deemed these entries worthy of comments? Or maybe, as webmaster, you deleted previous comments as non-family friendly or of insufficient quality? Anyways, kudos, and much hatzlacha.
I was at the Maxwell Street Market last Sunday. I didn’t see any Klezmer bands, but I did have some good Carne Asada tacos. It’s all Mexicans now.
Bert, you really must include the Bowling Green University fight song into midwest region! Also, known as the Havard of the midwest.
Bert,
I was at my daughter’s Jewish acapella group’s concert at MIT,
Techiyah. They had the Harvard Jewish acapella group as the first performers. They sang the Harvard fight song in Hebrew.
It was great on many levels.
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