Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner "Omar Narvaez"

If you're a baseball fan, especially in the Chicago area (he plays for the Chicago White Sox), you may have heard of this player named Omar Narvaez, last name pronounced nar-VAH-yes.

If you're a Chicago baseball fan AND a long-time classical piano fan, or a new-time piano fan who's a bit into old-time pianists, you probably can't hear the player's name without thinking of:

Let's also not forget that Guiomar Novaes was one of the greatest all-time performers of Chopin's music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDHJWsWFTg4

(Perhaps the best composition ever written?)

Golden tone and refined technique!

Working from the stretch, Mark? It's an odd pitch.

!!!!!!


Actually I think if you heard them saying his name, you'd be thinking Guiomar Novaes too!!

Although, since you are out there, not far from Chicago, maybe you do hear them saying it....

I heard Novaes in recital - and even got her autograph - twenty years before Narvaez was born.

Listening to White Sox baseball on the radio is about as interesting as watching paint dry while two people tell you about the chemical constituents of the formula and all of the reasons the chemistry is wrong. And since I listen to baseball for entertainment, I rarely tune in to a Sox game for more than an inning.

I prefer the poetry of John Rooney and Mike Shannon.

And now that you've brought Guiomar Novaes to my attention, I will listen to that, too! I will hit that pitch! Thank you very much!

I would actually attend such an event.





You don't mean this Mike Shannon, do you, who I'm pretty sure is the most famous Mike Shannon:

I don't think she should have written all those bad things about him, after all the years that she worked on his show.

Yes, I mean that Mike Shannon:



Here's the voice:



Listening to him call a game is like listening to baseball word jazz. He has a way of creating baseball slang on the fly. To me, listening to John Rooney and Mike Shannon is like listening to Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond.

I first listened to baseball as explained by Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese. That was a pair!

Now you are bringing back some fun memories!!