"Tessie" is both the longtime anthem ofMajor League Baseball (MLB)'sBoston Red Sox and a 2004 song by thepunk rock groupDropkick Murphys. The original "Tessie" was from the 1902 Broadway musicalThe Silver Slipper. The newer song, written in 2004, recounts how the singing of the original "Tessie" by theRoyal Rooters fan club helped theBoston Americans win the firstWorld Series in1903. The nameTessie itself is a diminutive form used with several names, includingEsther, Tess, and Theresa/Teresa.
The original version of "Tessie (You Are the Only, Only, Only)" was written by Will R. Anderson and was featured in the Broadway musicalThe Silver Slipper,[1] which ran for 160 performances between October 27, 1902, and March 14, 1903. The song was about a woman singing to her beloved parakeet "Tessie".
While a popular tune, the song gained greater fame when it was adopted as a rallying cry by theRoyal Rooters, a collection of loyal fans led byMichael T. McGreevy, informally known as "Nuf Ced" McGreevy, owner of the 3rd Base saloon. McGreevy earned his nickname "Nuf Ced" due to the way he kept peace in his bar: when he grew frustrated with arguments over theBoston Americans (who would later be renamed the Red Sox) and theBoston Braves (who would later move to Milwaukee and, eventually, Atlanta), he would pound his hand on the bar and declare "'Nuff [enough] said!". Boston mayorJohn "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, grandfather of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy, was a member of the Royal Rooters.
After the first four games of the1903 World Series, Boston was down 1–3 to thePittsburgh Pirates. (It was a best-of-nine series; five wins were needed to win the series.) The Royal Rooters began rallying their team with every song they could think of; ultimately "Tessie" helped win the day. There are stories that the Royal Rooters actually traveled to Pittsburgh and hired a band to play "Tessie" to annoy the Pirates ontheir home field. PittsburghoutfielderTommy Leach credited at least part of Boston's win to "that damn 'Tessie' song." He continued: "It was a real hum-dinger of a song, but it sort of got on your nerves after a while."
Boston won Game 5 and went on to win Games 6, 7, and 8 to win the Series. The Boston fans remembered "Tessie" fondly through the years;Burt Mustin, who decades later became a prolific "old man" character actor in movies and television, was still regaling audiences with "Tessie" stories while in his nineties.
The chorus to the original "Tessie" goes:
The fans began inventing their own lyrics to taunt the Pittsburgh players, such as:
etc.[2]
The Rooters stopped singing in 1918. The Red Sox won the World Series in 1918 but then endured an 86-year drought before winning again in2004, the same year a re-release of "Tessie" was issued by theDropkick Murphys.
In the 2000s a group of Red Sox fans recreated the track with those lyrics and an additional two stanzas in addition to finishing the Wagner stanza.
They also wrote a stanza on Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez:
Yankee captain Derek Jeter also got a stanza.
In 2004, the Boston-areaceltic punk groupDropkick Murphys recorded acover of "Tessie", released on anEP of the same name. In the music video, Tessie the "broom girl," was played by Colleen Reilly.[3] The Dropkicks said it was their intent to "bring back the spirit of the Rooters and to put the Red Sox back on top." The goal of the Dropkicks was realized when later that year the Boston Red Sox won their firstWorld Series in 86 years. The song is also featured as the bonus track on their June 2005 releaseThe Warrior's Code with a lead-in from theWEEI broadcast of the final play in the2004 World Series: "Swing and a ground ball, stabbed byFoulke. He has it. He underhands to first. And the Boston Red Sox are the World Champions. For the first time in 86 years, the Red Sox have won baseball's world championship. Can you believe it?" -Joe Castiglione
The second "Tessie"—which featured backing vocals from Red Sox playersJohnny Damon,Bronson Arroyo, andLenny DiNardo, Red Sox Vice President of Public Affairs Dr. Charles Steinberg; andBoston Herald sportswriter Jeff Horrigan (who co-wrote the new lyrics with the Dropkick Murphys)—has become atheme song for the Red Sox and tells the story of theRoyal Rooters singing the original "Tessie".
The song is featured in the soundtrack to the 2005 movie,Fever Pitch,[4] and is the song used in the closing credits to the VHS and DVD review of the 2004 World Series, a video that was produced by Major League Baseball Productions. The video gameMVP Baseball 2005 features the song.[5]
In addition to "Tessie", the EP includes "Fields of Athenry", "Nut Rocker" (aninstrumental rock version of theBoston Bruins theme song), "The Burden" as performed live onWBCN, "Tessie (Old Timey Baseball Version)" in which the song is accompanied primarily by a ballpark organ, as well as a music video for "Tessie."[citation needed] Proceeds from the sale of the EP went to benefit the Red Sox Foundation.[citation needed] ("Nut Rocker" inspired "Nutty" byThe Ventures, which was long associated with theBoston Bruins hockey team, as it was the theme song for Bruins telecasts on WSBK-TV.)
"Tessie" is the second of three songs played after everyRed Sox win atFenway Park, the first being "Dirty Water" byThe Standells. The third is "Joy to the World" byThree Dog Night.
Trot Nixon used "Tessie" as his at-bat intro music when he played for the Red Sox.
"Tessie" was played at the end of regulation, prior to the start of overtime during theNational Hockey League's2010 Winter Classic at Fenway Park.
A synthesized version of "Tessie" is used by Red Sox ticketing, as the signal a customer has been selected from the team's virtual waiting room to purchase tickets during busy periods.
The Dropkick Murphys tell this version of the story in theliner notes of their albumThe Warrior's Code:
We recorded this song in June 2004 and after giving it to the Red Sox told anyone that would listen that this song would guarantee a World Series victory. Obviously no one listened to us or took us seriously. We were three outs away from elimination in game 4 at the hands of the Yankees and receiving death threats from friends, family, & strangers telling us to stay away from the Red Sox and any other Boston sports team and get out of town. Luckily for us things turned around for the Red Sox and the rest is history.
In the winter of 2015–16, it was stated that the as-yet "unknown" young sister of the popular Red Sox mascotWally the Green Monster, aptly named Tessie, was going to join her famous "older brother" at Red Sox games starting in the 2016 MLB season.[6]
There's a never before seen member of the Red Sox family that has perimeter and diehard Red Sox fans alike asking, "wait, who?" Her name is Tessie, and apparently, she's Wally the Green Monster's sister. In a video posted by the team, Wally is seen heading home to visit his parents at JetBlue park in Fort Myers when Tessie runs out onto the field. Together — to a special Dropkick Murphys track — the pair enjoy some sibling time at the park. But when Wally gets ready to head back to Boston, it's decided that Tessie's coming too.
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