A Few Minutes With Will Ferrell
One of the few bright spots yesterday was comedian Will Ferrell's appearance at the ballpark.
Both on and off the air, he professed to being a dedicated sports fan and talked about how often he catches Cubs games on WGN while in California. His Harry Caray impersonation was a big hit, as was his visit to the booth, part of which is below:
WILL: It's quite a thrill to be here, I have to say.
LEN: Not a bad view up here.
WILL: No, and I love the temperature. Perfect baseball weather - 22 degrees. I'm sure you guys hear it all the time, but I'm such a sports fan and this is such a mecca for baseball, so it's a thrill to be here.
LEN: When did you start doing Harry?
WILL: I started doing Harry at the Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles. The Groundlings is to LA what Second City is to Chicago, kind of an improv theatre sketch club and I worked close enough at my job to come home for lunch. I would turn on the Cubs game and being from Southern California, I had no knowledge of Harry Caray. I was immediately fascinated by this announcer and that's where it kind of started.
LEN: You've had so many great roles. Is there a particular role that you're most proud of or where you had the most fun?
WILL: Well, they're all pretty fun. The one that seems to have, especially I'm hearing from this crowd is "Old School". I'm getting a lot of Frank the Tank. I'm being asked to take my pants off a lot today, which I'm not gonna do because I'll be arrested and then I'll miss the game.
BOB: I think streaking is legal here at Wrigley, kind of an oasis.
WILL: Oh is it? Good to know. When you guys see me in the outfield after this, I'll blame it on Brenly here.
LEN: Bob can tell you - "Old School" has been played in many clubhouses.
WILL: Yeah, I was lucky enough to be in the clubhouse before the game today and the guys said the same thing. It's a thrill, especially that lot of athletes love the movie.
LEN: It's interesting when big-time actors and comedians come to the ballpark, the players always want to talk about you and you want to talk about sports.
WILL: That's exactly the case. I had an odd situation, because I went through the training area first and there was Nomar, Kerry Wood, and Jerry Hairston all getting worked on and I felt slightly odd. So I started massaging Kerry Wood's calf. I didn't know what else to do.