STATEN ISLAND, NY- Minor league ball has its perks. A fan friendly atmosphere. A chance to meet mostly first and second-year players who are very accomodating when it comes to keeping their supporters happy before and after games. And plenty of entertainment at the ballpark.

During last night’s Baby Bomber 7-3 win over the Spinners at St. George, the 5,031 in attendance were in for a special treat. That’s because The Blues Brothers were on hand providing all sorts of fun filled rambunctious stuff between innings.

Much like their Blues Brother movie predecessors John Belushi and Dan Akroyd, the duo of Jake and Elwood from Chicago have been at it for 23 years traveling across the country and even taken their act across the continent to seven other countries.

“This is 23 years of fun,” expressed Jake after just getting warmed up in the early innings of a game which lasted nearly three and a half hours. “We can’t consider it a job. How could you give it up after 23 years?”

So how exactly did they get started and keep alive one of the funniest movies of our generation? Jake credited his partner Elwood who has been there since the beginning.

“Actually, he did. He’s the one who came up with it,” the Belushi look alike pointed out.

“It all started on a dare in a bar at college in 1984. And from there they moved on to doing the national show of Putting On The Hits. The lip synch contest. … I’ve actually been doing this for 12 years. It moved onto the Chicago Bulls and then other sporting events and corporate parties. It’s just been a crazy, crazy ride.”

Staten Island was one of their final stops in what marks the end of a great run for the dynamic duo who look and play their roles right down to a tee.

Just ask the pleased spectators who cheered their every move on the field which included a hilarious bit where Jake pretended to be home plate umpire and inspired real umpire Max Guyll to test out his dance feet along the third base line.

When they weren’t singing or dancing their asses off on the field, the pair were in the crowd talking with fans while taking pictures and signing plenty of autographs for kids.

What more would you expect from two affable gentlemen who have just four more stops left before hanging it up?

At least for Jake, it’s hard to come up with one place that stands out where they performed. But he did recall one story.
“Each place has their own special little memory. Even in Greenville, Mississippi where they had 96 people at the baseball game and they had tornadoes around all night, all day long and 96 people still came out. Scott Sanderson who was a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, he was the general manager, owner for …”

“We went out and performed for like 25 minutes. They stopped the game and all the players stood right in front of  us while we were behind home plate while we were performing. And then we were done. And then we moved on. That was special.”

One thing that has never gotten old for the dynamic duo is the reception they’ve gotten.

“It’s awesome. It’s awesome. You don’t do it for a while and you get depressed. … I heard like riding giants for big wave surfers. They don’t have those big waves for a while and they get depressed cause they don’t get that adrenaline rush.”

“Once you go out and you get that energy going from the crowd, they give it to you and you give it back to them and it’s reciprocating all the way through.”

As for what they’ll do when it finally concludes, he’s not sure but knows one thing.

“I want to stay in the entertainment industry. I’d like to. … The future’s wide open.”