Go to a Bruins game? The sound was John Kiley's. Celtics? John Kiley. Red Sox? John Kiley.
"And," he once pointed out, "don't forget the Braves. I did them, too."
There aren't going to be any more John Kileys. Show tunes on the organ are out. Loud rock on expensive sound systems are in. John Kiley came from a different era, when the idea was to oblige the owner's wife with Rodgers and Hart's "Where or When?" (which just happened to be Tom and Jean's song). That trio can reunite now, because John Kiley died early yesterday at the age of 80.
John Kiley ran his magic fingers over the Fenway Park ivories right into the 1990s. He was the organ man at the Garden from 1941 to 1984, when the eccentric and dastardly Paul Mooney effectively fired him by refusing to allow the then 72-year-old organist with a back problem to drive his car inside the building. He was as much a part of the Boston sports scene as The Wall or the parquet floor.