How organist Dieter Ruehle became a Dodgers and Kings staple

Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes isn't sure the team's organist exists.

"I feel like ever since I've been here, you always hear 'Dieter Ruehle,' and it's almost like, I don't know if it's a real person," Barnes told ESPN. "I feel it's just like a mythical thing or I don't know. It sounds crazy to say but no, they do a great job, he does a great job."

His teammate, Mookie Betts, is on the same page.

"Yeah exactly," Betts told ESPN. "I've never seen him."

Betts couldn't definitively remember if he had met Ruehle. However, he could identify him in another way.

"If you lined him up, I would have no idea what he looks like," Betts said. "I definitely know his keys."

Ruehle is, in fact, a real person.

He has been the Dodgers' full-time organist since 2016. He is also the music director and organist for the Los Angeles Kings -- in the midst of his 30th season with the franchise and 36th in the NHL. Ruehle's résumé includes playing in six Olympics and a role on Kobe Bryant's podcast for children, "The Punies."

In a sports landscape more reliant on programmed music, Ruehle, 56, offers a unique, classical spin on sounds that fill rinks and ballparks.

His distinctive style that includes a variety of tracks -- at a recent Dodgers game, Ruehle played "El Sonidito" by Hechizeros Band and "Birds of a Feather" by Billie Eilish -- has made him into an L.A. sports entertainment staple. There is even an X account called @DieterDecoder built to identify some of the renowned sports organist's tracks.

During a December 2021 Kings game, Ruehle played "Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang" by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg with Snoop in attendance. The rapper gave him a shoutout on the Kings broadcast, calling Ruehle "vicious on the keys."

Dodgers play-by-play announcer Joe Davis simply calls him brilliant.

"When you think about the amount of music that he has in that brain and his ability to call it up on command. To see something happen in a baseball game connected to a song. That in itself is amazing, to have that connection," Davis told ESPN. "But then to be able to play that song and play it well. He's incredible."

In the 1970s and 1980s, games only featured the sound of an organ and the public address announcer on speaker. Ruehle remembers legendary Dodgers organists Helen Dell and Nancy Bea Hefley, the latter of whom died last month, playing during each inning break.

Even when the games were on TV, Ruehle was fascinated and often tried to play along with the organists.

The day after his 12th birthday, Ruehle had the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience. The local ABC7 station ran a "sports fantasy" segment. Ruehle wrote to them asking if he would be able to play hockey with the Kings. If not, Ruehle asked if he could play the organ at a game instead.

The Kings went with his backup request and Ruehle played a portion of their game on Nov. 19, 1980. The delay between pressing his keys and hearing the noise initially threw him off, but Ruehle thought it went well.

What stood out to him is the control he felt -- and still feels today.

"I could play some keys and if I play them well enough people will respond and they'll yell, 'Charge!' or they'll clap their hands, and it's a great feeling," he said.

When he turned 15, the Los Angeles Lazers, an indoor soccer team that played at the Forum, hired him as their organist. Five years later in 1989, the Kings did the same, a role he left in 1992 before returning in 1998.

For the most part, Ruehle is self-taught and relies on feel. He took some music classes at Burbank High School then a few music theory and composition classes at community colleges, but he never finished.

He also doesn't use sheet music and learns songs by ear -- storing a library of notes and sounds in his mind that he picks and plays in an instant.

"I kind of went away from sheet music years ago because I found that oftentimes I would buy sheet music, but it wouldn't sound the same as the original record," Ruehle said. "And I learned that sometimes sheet music would be printed in a different key. And it felt off to me. I like playing the stuff in the actual original key the song is written in."

The Dodgers reached out to him in 2013 and Ruehle began filling in for Hefley whenever she couldn't attend games. In 2016, he became the full-time organist after Hefley retired the previous year, concluding a 27-year run in the position.

Ruehle admitted to feeling apprehensive when he took over because of Hefley's popularity. He found his groove in his second season, letting loose and reacting.

He referenced a moment when he heard Davis and Orel Hershiser talking about Alicia Keys on the Dodgers game broadcast. Ruehle responded by playing Keys' hit, "Girl On Fire," and realized:

"Yeah, I could play these pop songs and I could be me," he said.

THE POWERFUL SOUND of the organ that fills Crypto.com Arena comes from a seemingly hidden area up in the rafters.

There's a ladder behind a gate next to section 323. Each of the seven or so steps are just big enough for a size 10.5 men's sneaker. Ruehle scans his badge, opens the gate and uses the ladder to reach the seventh of seven floors in the arena.

A couple steps across is where his Roland Atelier AT-900 is located, behind the Kings' championship banners. Save for a bearded spotlight operator named Charles, Ruehle's only other neighbors are his organ and essential gameday equipment.

At Dodger Stadium, Ruehle's setup is next to the press box behind home plate. Over there, he has a fan next to his organ. At Crypto.com Arena, he has hand warmers. Despite the contrast in climates, Ruehle's game days are similar.

He'll rehearse the national anthem and intros for each period at Crypto.com Arena. With 45 minutes on the clock before Kings games, he'll play a 15-minute set. For a 5:38 p.m. local start time at Dodger Stadium, Ruehle first plays at 4:30. He's in constant communication with the DJs at each venue.

Breaks, mound visits, whistles in hockey or outs in baseball can all trigger his fingers pressing down on the organ keys. An iPad above each of his organs includes names of songs he may end up playing. He typically leaves a space below the ones he has already used, a sort of mental tracker for himself.

However, he doesn't rely solely on the set list -- his style of in-game music requires snap-of-a-finger reactions.

"It's not set in stone. It's kind of like a template and, like, 'Oh, I'll play this' but if something else comes to mind, I can do that too," he said.

For the Kings, Ruehle is also the music director, in charge of identifying when it makes most sense to play the organ or throw it to the in-house DJ.

Balancing his roles when both teams are in season is simple. The Kings get prioritized in the spring because it is late in their regular season and playoffs, with the same logic applied in the fall when the Dodgers take priority. In the past, when both teams played at home on the same day and their start times were spread out enough, he worked both games.

It can all be overwhelming, but Ruehle tries to keep it quiet when he's not performing. For the most part, he doesn't listen to music on his own time.

"I really appreciate the silence," he said.

Organs have been a fixture at ballparks since 1941 and in the NHL since 1929. But, with the advancement of technology, organists have dwindled down. According to a 2023 story from the SFGate, only nine MLB teams still employ a full-time organist.

"You love the music in a stadium but the ability for an organ to bring what is to me [a] distinctly baseball feel to a game," Davis said. "When you don't have the live organ player like that, something feels a little bit off."

There has been an organist at Dodger Stadium since it opened in 1962. Generations have come to the ballpark with the familiar tune of an organ serving as the soundtrack to their experience. It's why Ruehle plays "Charge!" every time the Dodgers first take the field, something Dell started. Ruehle wants to maintain the traditions.

"If you play Metallica, it's gonna sound the same in stadium A or stadium B," Ruehle said. "But each organ, though, has a different sound and the organist has a different style, and I think you lose that originality or that original custom vibe [of] each stadium that does have an organist."

Betts and Barnes both appreciate the personality organists bring to the game, with Barnes calling it "a cool touch" that the team still keeps the tradition alive.

A moment that occurred last May emphasizes Barnes' point.

While sitting at his organ during pregame, Ruehle could see smoke coming from the parking lot but wasn't sure of its origins. Reacting in real time, he began playing Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire."

A fan sitting in the reserve level of the ballpark had a clear view of a car burning in the parking lot. They recorded a video that zoomed in on the burning car, then zoomed out to reveal their vantage point inside the stadium -- with Joel's track playing in the background. The video went viral on X surpassing three million views.

"I was just doing what I do. Just reacting to whatever I see," Ruehle said. "I didn't plan on it."

RUEHLE TAKES PRIDE in being quick and playing the right tunes for the moment. His role with the Kings requires a different kind of focus, as he's in charge of the goal horn -- a small mechanism that sits just under the right side of his keyboard -- which he pulls up three times after each Kings goal.

The instant replay machine adds another layer to Ruehle's setup. At both Kings and Dodgers games, a hard disc audio playback system sits next to his organ, loaded with hot keys for moments like celebrating double plays or getting fans to clap along.

It also has go-to pre-recorded tracks for in-game use. A Dodgers win prompts "I Love L.A." by Randy Newman while a Kings one means: "Hollywood Nights" by Bob Seger. The final song to close out his Kings gig is always "L.A. Is My Lady" by Frank Sinatra. Usually, just a couple people in the arena are left to hear it.

Ruehle has a few musical quirks he saves for just the right moments.

If a Dodgers game hits three hours, he'll play the theme from "Gilligan's Island." A 5-0 lead warrants the theme from 1968's Hawaii Five-O, while seven runs means it's time for the "Monday Night Football" theme.

When the count is one ball, two strikes, one out, he plays "I 2 I" from the Goofy Movie -- a nod to the scoreboard's look, which mirrors the title of the song. Three balls, one strike, one out prompts "311" by Amber.

"It's kind of like you're doing a live soundtrack. ... Those are the stars, those are the actors out there, but it's not scripted," Ruehle explained. "They're playing real and then they're gonna win, they're gonna lose, but I'm just kind of reacting to what they're doing."

Ruehle starts "Go Kings Go" and "Let's Go Dodgers" crowd chants on the organ, too, often blending them in through clever musical transitions.

During a recent kids night at Crypto.com Arena, Ruehle played "Hedwig's Theme (Theme from Harry Potter)" leading into "Go Kings Go." At a Dodgers game days later, Chappell Roan's "Hot To Go!" flowed into "Let's Go Dodgers."

Player requests are rare, but former Dodgers first baseman Justin Turner did make one once. He asked Ruehle to play the jingle from a "Meow Mix" commercial for Dodgers pitcher Tony Gonsolin, who loved cats.

Ruehle obliged, tapping out the "meow, meow, meow, meow" melody for Gonsolin. Later, he met Turner on the field. The first baseman told him he had noticed the organist's tunes and "got a kick out of it."

"It was kind of nice to know, I guess sometimes they're listening," Ruehle said.

Even if they're not sure he's real.