The real story behind a fan's quest to make the Rockies buy an organ and let him play it

Diehard Colorado Rockies fan Collin Ingram’s ears perked up in the sixth inning of the Colorado Rockies’ 124th game of the season. Where many fans heard a harmless comment about an organist, Ingram heard a call to action.

It all started with the Rockies broadcasters complimenting Atlanta Braves organist Matthew Kaminski on Sunday.

“That reminded me how awesome having a live organist is and how bummed I am that the Rockies don’t have one,” Ingram told Yahoo Sports in an email.

Ingram decided he had to right this wrong, and the only way to do so was to go directly to the Rockies. He revived an old viral format and decided to ask the team how many retweets it would take for them to buy and organ and let him be the team’s organist in 2019.

Though the team responded with a lofty 5,280,000, Ingram decided to give it a shot. Forty-eight hours later, he had amassed over 107,000 retweets and even had the support of MLB’s main account.

The Rockies organ tweet went viral thanks to the Braves organist

How exactly does a tweet go viral? In this instance, it was Braves organist Matthew Kaminski — yes, the same person who inspired Ingram’s tweet — who first gave it attention. Kaminski, who goes by @bravesorganist on Twitter, stumbled on the tweet and sent it out to his 13.1K followers. That was enough for the campaign to get noticed by MLB’s official account. They re-tweeted Ingram’s post and then the attention really started spiking.

The Rockies organ tweet started as a joke

All of that attention came as a surprise to the 26-year-old Ingram, because his initial tweet to the Rockies was not meant to be taken seriously.

“[It was] 100 percent a joke,” he says. “And a bad one at that. I mean, come on, a bad rehashing of the Wendy’s kid gag? In 2018?”

If you’re unaware, the Wendy’s kid is Carter Wilkerson, who started this trend by asking the food chain how many retweets it would take to get free chicken nuggets for a year in 2017. They told him 18 million. His plea broke a record for the most re-tweeted post on Twitter. That was enough to get Wendy’s to pay up on the bet.

Can the Rockies fan actually play the organ?

Not really. Ingram — who is a record producer in Denver — has experience playing organs, but considers himself unqualified for this task.

“I’ve played some simple organ parts on a few records I’ve produced but I’d be wildly underqualified to be a major-league organist,” he says.

Rockies organ tweet has a long way to go to reach its goal

Though the Rockies act like they are concerned, the team is probably safe.

There’s a strong chance they won’t have to buy an organ and install Ingram as their organist in 2019.

On the off chance Ingram somehow reaches his five-million-retweet goal, he says he’ll work day and night to hold the Rockies to their promise. And after he gets his day on the organ, he’ll do whatever he can to ensure the team brings on a full-time organist moving forward.

As the Wendy’s kid proved, the Rockies could pay up even if Ingram fails to reach his goal. While the team probably isn’t going to buy an organ, Ingram thinks hanging out with the team’s mascot, Dinger, would be a fitting consolation prize.

“As far as a consolation prize I would very much like to hang out with Dinger for at least half an inning and be given all available Dinger memorabilia,” he says.

– – – – – – –

Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik

More from Yahoo Sports:
• Elway triggers harsh response from Kaepernick’s lawyer
• Only the Mets could lose in such an embarrassing way
• Ravens rookie QB may not be ready for the NFL – yet
• MLB star apologizes to ESPN over ‘fake news’ claim