Bill Murray sings ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ to Cubs fans via video

In this strangest of major league baseball seasons, some traditions still survive.

Diehard Chicago Cubs fan Bill Murray delivered an enthusiastic version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” a seventh-inning stretch staple at Wrigley Field. Only this time, Murray did not sing in the Friendly Confines for the Cubs’ home opener against the Milwaukee Brewers. Instead, the comedian sang via video, Rolling Stone reported.

There were no fans in the stands, but the Cubs played Murray’s socially distanced performance over Wrigley Field’s JumboTron.

Murray, hanging on tightly to a giant stuffed bear, yelled to the empty bleachers with enthusiasm.

“All right everybody! We wanna hear you sing,” Murray hollered. “We wanna hear you all the way out to to the center field scoreboard!”

Swaying back and forth with his stuffed bear, Murray was over the top but a welcome relief to fans hungering for the start of the baseball season, which began after a nearly four-month delay on Thursday.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Murray was a frequent visitor to Wrigley Field and sang baseball’s traditional anthem several times to the crowd. That included the Cubs’ 2012 home opener and the team’s first World Series home game since 1945 in October 2016, Rolling Stone reported.

Singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh-inning stretch was started by legendary broadcaster Harry Caray in 1976 when he called games for the Chicago White Sox. When Caray moved to the North Side of Chicago in 1982 to broadcast Cubs games, he brought the song with him.

Cox Media Group