If you\’ve ever been to a Yankees\’ game at Yankee Stadium, you\’ve heard roll call. In the right field bleachers, a bunch of fans called \”bleacher creatures\” chant the names of the Yankees\’ fielders in the top of the first inning. In response, the players point, salute, and do all kind of crazy things to tell the bleachers creatures that they hear them. There are many leaders of the roll call. I was able to talk to one of the leaders, Marc Chalpin. Chalpin told me that even though he leads roll call a lot, it is not his thing. \”Roll call is for everybody,\” he said.
Of the seven positions (pitchers and catchers aren\’t in roll call), the three outfielders give the most original responses, according to Chaplin. \”The infielders tend to just wave, make it quicker. The outfielders always do custom stuff, like a video game.\” If you don\’t know any of the best custom things, Marc has you covered. \”Johnny Damon was the first guy to have a custom reaction, everybody used to just wave. He would go down to a knee and do a double point. Nick Swisher was famous for his salute. Brett Gardner has a pretty good one. He flexes. Also, Aaron Judge pounds the gavel like a Judge.\”
Roll call is a very legendary thing, and Chaplin doesn\’t take leading it for granted \”Leading [roll call] is a big honor. Roll call has been around a lot longer than me, and it\’ll be around a lot longer than me, hopefully.\”
Also, the players like responding to the chants, \”the team cares about it.\” When 3B Todd Frazier made his Yankee Stadium debut in July, Newsday wrote an article on how the players choose their responses.
If you want to see a video of Marc leading the roll call, check out the video below made on August 14, 2017.
A big thanks goes out to Marc for doing this interview. Follow him on Twitter @MarcNYY618.
CarterHud 