CHICAGO - More than 300 "guest conductors" have led the crowd at Wrigley Field in singing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch.
When former Chicago Bears tackle Steve McMichael got his chance, he did what the likes of Bill Murray, George Foreman or a purple dinosaur named Barney had never done. An umpire had him removed from the stadium.
On Tuesday night, McMichael, who is now involved in professional wrestling and whose nicknames include "Mongo" and "Ming the Merciless," made an editorial comment about a call by home plate umpire Angel Hernandez that ended the previous inning.
"And don't worry, I'll have some speaks with that home plate umpire after the game," McMichael said just before breaking into the song that became a longtime Wrigley Field tradition under the late Harry Caray.
The statement was met with a roar of approval from the crowd, but Hernandez appeared angry at the comment and signaled for McMichael's ejection. According to Cubs officials, Hernandez asked crew chief Randy Marsh to call the press box and ask that McMichael be removed.
McMichael left without incident, according to John McDonough, the team's vice president of marketing and broadcasting. He said McMichael was planning to leave after he sang anyway.
In fact, McMichael said he didn't know about any ejection until later Tuesday night when he was watching the end of the game in a restaurant owned by his former coach, Mike Ditka.
"Then I heard on TV they say the ump asked the people to get him out of here or the Cubs were going to forfeit the game," he said Wednesday afternoon before appearing on a radio talk show.
McDonough said the team wasn't pleased with McMichael's comment and issued an apology. But he said he didn't think McMichael "was trying to incite anything whatsoever" with his comment. Instead, he said the game was a very tense back-and-forth struggle that included the close play where Ron Coomer of the Cubs was called out at home.
"There was so much emotion and I think Steve got caught up in the moment," McDonough said.
McMichael, a fan favorite when he played with the Bears from 1981 until 1993 for both his play on the field and his antics off it, said he was simply joking around.
And while he apologized to the Cubs for any embarrassment he might have caused, the man known to put snakes in the closets and car trunks of his teammates wasn't apologizing to Hernandez. He even suggested the umpire should thank him.
Far from trying to incite anyone, he said he was actually trying to protect the umpire from an angry crowd. And, McMichael said, it worked.
"They stopped booing him and started cheering me," he said on the radio program.
He later joked that what he wanted to talk to the umpire to give him the name of his eye surgeon.
McMichael also said he wasn't trying to intimidate the umpire, but he pointed out that in the ninth inning the same umpire called a Cubs player safe at the plate on a close play.
McDonough said that just as they do all the "guest conductors," team officials went over with McMichael what he planned on saying before singing.
McDonough said McMichael had said he was going to say it was great to be back in Chicago, and something to the effect of "Mongo's in the house." Then he was going to mention Caray, the longtime announcer who died in 1998, McDonough said.
"What he said about the umpire was kind of a wildcard statement," that the team didn't know about before McMichael said it, according to McDonough.
Team officials did not say anything about making comments about what happens during the game, including close plays at home plate, but they will from now on.
"There is a new category where we're going to make sure we tell them not to address anything that goes on on the field," McDonough said.
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