Almost exactly fifteen years ago today, Jerry Remy made his immortal call of “Here Comes the Pizza” during the Red Sox 2007 Patriot’s Day game. Today, ESPN has posted a tremendous deep-dish deep dive into the story. It focuses on Dan Kelly, chucker of the pizza. Because they’ve used the video I posted way back in 2012, it even features my dumb face embedded right in the middle of the story:
Speaking of that video, I’ve always wondered how on earth it’s managed to stay online. It is very much not licensed, and it has over 2 million views. I can’t explain it. In a column from the 10th anniversary back in 2017, Grant Brisbee explained his theory of how it played out:
I’d like to think at MLB Advanced Media, a nervous staffer came up to his boss with a list of illicit YouTube videos that needed DMCA takedowns.
“Aaron hitting 715?”
“Take it down.”
“Mike Trout scaling the wall? Looks like there’s a whole playlist.”
“Take them all down.”
“Here comes the pizza?”
“T … no. No, that one stays.”
There’s a difference between dumb baseball highlights that get people excited about baseball and something that belongs to the world.
I like to believe that the video so deserves to be in the world that even the laws of copyright don’t apply to it. And while I do wish my brick would get a mention or two in these articles, it’s wonderful just to see “Here Comes the Pizza” continuing to provide so much joy to the world. Thanks, Jerry.