🎵 Dead & Phish Provide Soundtrack For World Series

Songs from the Grateful Dead & Phish bring joy to fans during the World Series. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider: We look at how and why Phish and Grateful Dead songs brought great joy to fans during the World Series broadcast on FOX ... we examine how Ryan Day is turning Ohio State into Quarterback U ... and we feature a beautiful mural painting of San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon. “The World Series is goin’ on as I write this. And, needless to say, my phone is lighting up.” – Bob Weir, Grateful Dead founding member. On Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Game 6 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays ended a 32-year title drought, gave the City of Angels a second major sports championship in the month of October, capped off an enthralling, tactical tussle and closed out arguably the wildest and weirdest baseball season we’ve ever seen. It also, for now at least, brought down the curtain on an accompanying frenzy of online and social media activity among the fanbases of two passionately-supported bands for whom the Series became not just about crowning a new baseball champion, but also a chance to bend their ears to an undulating track list of their favorite tunes. You don’t find Grateful Dead and Phish hits in today’s Top 40. They’re way more eclectic, permanent, and timeless than that. The former started in 1965 and its spirit is still going strong 25 years after the death of the iconic Jerry Garcia. Grateful Dead represents, in no particular order: a band, a social movement and the conduit for a massive group of traveling friends to congregate at shows of the group’s enduring offshoots and descendants. During its years of constant touring, the Grateful Dead played more than 2,300 concerts – successor Dead & Company still tours with John Mayer taking the Garcia role – and the lingering loyalty may stretch beyond what even the most fervent sports fan can muster. [STORY IMAGE 1] Phish, which started in Burlington, Vermont, has also carried the torch of “jam” music for more than 35 years, and offers an equally communal experience that borrows from beatnik culture and forges the same kind of bond among aficionados. “Phans” collect the number of shows they have been to like a badge of honor. Supporters of both bands like to boast that “we are everywhere.” You know several, you just might not know it. So when a small collection of devout disciples of both bands earned their way into positions at FOX Sports where they had an impact on music selection, well, there could only be one outcome. “The music has the right kind of riffs and produces the right kind of feeling,” FOX Sports senior vice president of production and talent development Jacob Ullman, a Grateful Dead fan since childhood, told me. “Few other bands would attract that kind of reaction from their music being played through a telecast. It is sports-meets-music-meets-fandom, in the coolest kind of way.” Music from the bands has been played on television sports broadcasts for years. The smooth rhythms lend themselves beautifully to bumpers heading into commercial breaks and slow-motion replays. Yet never has there been more jam music, which can be loosely described as a fusion of rock, folk, bluegrass and other elements, in televised sports than in recent times. During the World Series, FOX Emmy-winning chief baseball audio engineer Joe Carpenter – an avowed Deadhead who has been to more than 150 shows – played a significant amount of Grateful Dead and Phish numbers. [STORY IMAGE 2] Jake Jolivette, a devoted Phish fan, has had a similar effect on Thursday Night Football broadcasts, and both men have been encouraged by Ullman and associate director Bryan Biederman to continue the trend. “I get a kick out of it whenever I hear our stuff,” Phish keyboard player Page McConnell said. “I text the band right away to let them know.” Meanwhile, each time a song comes on, most typically during a break between innings, fans of the two bands would immediately take to Twitter, Facebook and various message boards. Both Grateful Dead and Phish trended on Twitter during the World Series. Carpenter quickly realized that his choices were being scrutinized and it added a level of pressure. “It started out as a selfish kind of thing,” Carpenter said. “I would request permissions for songs by bands that I liked to listen to. But then I began to see that it worked great on the broadcast and then that a lot of people were talking about it. I had to make sure I got it right with the choices, and that I didn’t repeat.” Repetition is almost like a cuss word in jam music circles. Grateful Dead and Phish performances are famed for the boast that no two concerts are the same. If you haven’t been to one, you won’t find lip-synching teenagers, some athletic backup dancers and a bunch of pyrotechnics. It is a true musical performance, and the fan bases analyze each one and comment upon them expansively. [STORY IMAGE 3] In that sense, Weir says, there is a parallel with athletic competition. “Like in sports, if you don’t know what’s coming next it puts an edge on things and kind of brings the colors out,” Weir said. “That’s been pretty much the way we’ve gone about making music for over half a century. “Like in a game, a given night’s show can turn from light to dark and back again at a moment’s notice and there you still are – on the field or onstage – and you just have to roll with it. Everything can change but you’ve still got to just do your best and pull it together. I love that.” The most famous sports Deadhead is basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton, who took his title-winning Boston Celtics colleagues to a show (where they sat on stage to watch) in 1986. In a conversation you wish you were a fly on the wall for, Larry Bird and Garcia bonded over a discussion about how to find ways to perform at the highest level, night in, night out. [STORY IMAGE 4] On the field, baseball’s greatest showcase might have had several alternative endings to how it actually turned out. What if Blake Snell hadn’t been lifted by Rays manager Kevin Cash? What if that insane ending to Game 4 hadn’t happened? Or if Clayton Kershaw had performed like his prior World Series outings instead of the lights-out regular season guy we are used to? Yes, it might have looked different, but it was always going to have a certain sound to it. Years ago, Carpenter was urged to play more contemporary chart music on various broadcasts, before a realization that such tunes and tones were not necessarily the right fit for sports’ inimitable flow. Nowadays, he has essentially free rein and thus, he and Jolivette have become unwitting celebrities in the jam music fan sphere. Ultimately, for all the additional impact the songs have when they become part of the televised production and the game-within-the-game it has spawned, the whole thing would fall flat if it wasn’t an appropriate fit. Weir remembers what he thought when he first heard some of his music on sports TV, during the NBA playoffs in the early 80s. “It sounded pretty right,” he said … and it still does. [STORY IMAGE 5] Here’s what others have said ... @rwhit22: “My team isn't playing, but a tied series with plenty of @Phish coming and going from commercials in a #WorldSeries I can get behind!!!!” @MatthewMontoya_: “Ok [#FoxSports]( staffer who plays @phish and @GratefulDead in bumpers during #worldseries thank you for making me happy.” @whatwouldDOOdo: “I get really excited every time there are 2 outs in the [#WorldSeries]( because it means we’re only 1 out away from maybe hearing some @GreatfulDead or @phish on the @MLBonFOX broadcast #weareeverywhere.” [IN OTHER WORDS] - Ryan Day is helping Ohio State QBs finally get drafted in the first round – and is making sure the position is set in Columbus for the future. [ESPN senior writer Adam Rittenberg]( explains how Day is turning Ohio State into Quarterback U. - Major League Baseball has changed since Tony La Russa left the dugout. [USA Today’s Bob Nightengale]( looks at if the new Chicago White Sox manager can adapt to modern baseball. - Bryson DeChambeau won’t stop obsessing over something bigger than another tour victory: the perfect, repeatable swing. [Sports Illustrated’s Michael Rosenberg]( explains how the U.S. Open champ is breaking the game of golf. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( This week’s “Internet is Undefeated” posts have been nothing short of incredible, so it seems only fitting to close out the week with a must-see photo, compliments of a San Antonio-based clothing company. Check out this mural, which features San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon. The painting features a young Hammon in her basketball jersey looking up and admiring herself in today’s world. It features the words “NEVER STOP” at the top, which is likely referring to Hammon’s “never stop” attitude on her path to become the NBA’s first female coach. This is a beautiful tribute to Hammon and everything she has accomplished in her life. Well done! [VIEWER'S GUIDE] Friday Night SmackDown (FOX, 8 p.m. ET) Jay Uso faces the consequences of losing to his cousin Roman Reigns at WWE Hell in a Cell. Michigan State at Michigan (Saturday, FOX, 12 p.m. ET) Joe Milton and the No. 13-ranked Michigan Wolverines host in-state rival Michigan State at the Big House. Ohio State at Penn State (Saturday, ABC, 7:30 p.m. ET) Justin Fields leads the No. 3-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes into Happy Valley to take on Sean Clifford and the Penn State Nittany Lions. Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers (Sunday, FOX, 1 p.m. ET) Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings travel to Green Bay to take on Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in a much-anticipated NFC North showdown. San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks (Sunday, FOX, 4:30 p.m. ET) Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks host Jimmy Garoppolo and the San Francisco 49ers in a battle of NFC West squads. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens: OVER 46.5 Welcome to one of the most highly anticipated matchups of the NFL season. Ben Roethlisberger leads the undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers into Baltimore to take on reigning MVP Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. It’s always a slugfest when these two teams meet, which should be the case once again. However, while defense has often been a theme between these two teams, and both are very good on defense again this year, it’s hard not to be impressed with these offenses, especially in the run game. Baltimore leads the NFL in rushing, average an eye-popping 164.3 yards-per-game. Pittsburgh ranks in the top 12 in both rushing yards-per-game and rushing touchdowns. These are also two of the highest scoring offenses in the league, both averaging right around 30 points per contest. FOX Bet has the O/U in this game set at 46.5, which means one team is going to have to score under 24 points. Pittsburgh has topped the 24-point mark in every game this season, and Baltimore has done so in five of its six games. Taking the over sure looks like a solid move. [WHAT THEY SAID] “Baseball is a ballet without music.” — Ernie Harwell [FOLLOW FOX SPORTS] [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( Download FOX Sports App: [Fire TV]( [Roku]( [Google Play]( [App Store]( [Fire TV]( [Roku]( [App Store]( [Google Play]( Also available on these devices: [fireTV | AppleTV | ROKU | Google Chromecast | XBOX ONE | SAMSUNG Smart TV] [fireTV | AppleTV | ROKU | Google Chromecast | XBOX ONE | SAMSUNG Smart TV] Trademark & Copyright Notice: ™ and © 2020 Fox Media LLC and FOX Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Please do not reply to this message. If you do not wish to receive emails like this in the future, please [unsubscribe](. FOX Sports respects your privacy. Click [here]( to view our Privacy Policy. Fox.com Business & Legal Affairs - Manager Digital Media P.O. 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