Green acres theme song
She was Burlington baseball’s biggest fan 
and best friend.
At least one major leaguer called her his Burlington grandma.
When Ann Cook died Monday at 64, she left behind an extended family of athletes and behind-the-scenes players spanning decades and stretching across the country.
“She certainly had a passion for baseball, but even more than baseball, I just saw her as having a passion for the players as far as being their mom away from home,” said Laura Mitchell, treasurer of the Burlington Royals’ Booster Club. “She just really tried to make sure that Burlington was their home away from home.”
Cook was a fixture at home games since the mid-1980s. She and her husband, James — who helped found the Indians’ booster club — could always be seen be-hind the home team dugout.
“The players know we’re pulling for them, and they know they have someone in Burlington who cares for them. We can encourage them. We can boost them. That’s all we try to do,” Cook told The Times-News in 2006.
Her role went beyond her modest description.
To Cook, it meant caring for players, often away from home for the first time in their lives, welcom-ing their families to town and even mailing news clippings and letters to faraway families who couldn’t make it to games here.
Not content to let the players rise through the ranks of the Cleveland Indians’ system alone, she often traveled to games far beyond Bur-lington to see them. She was also a fixture at spring training, and delighted in seeing players again after the winter.
Kristi Parker, known for singing the “Green Acres” theme song at home games, first met Cook in 1993 when she began attending games.
“Eleven years ago, she and I flew to … Texas, to go see the (Cleve-land) Indians play the Rangers. It was Jim Thome and Manny Rami-rez and one of the Giles boys. They saw her and their faces lit up as soon as they saw her,” Parker said. “Those big, professional baseball players loved Ann Cook. The rea-son, I guess, is that she genuinely loved all of the players that came through here.”
Manny Ramirez still called her his “Grandma from Burlington,” daughter Amy Cook said.
Burlington Athletic Stadium won’t be the same without her, folks say.
“It’s hard to imagine being at the park and Ann not being there,” Mitchell said. “It’s kind of like Cracker Jacks, peanuts and Ann Cook. She was just always there.”
Mark Cryan, the Burlington In-dians’ former general manager, said her dedication helped make the club successful.
“She was part of the fabric of life at the ballpark. She was baseball’s No. 1 fan in Burlington,” Cryan said. “I’m sad to see her go. It’s a part of what the Burlington Indians were. It’s another piece of that period gone.”
The Cleveland Indians’ home of-fice knew and welcomed Cook, and folks there were saddened by news of her death Tuesday, he said. Cryan will serve as a pallbearer at her funeral Thursday.
Baseball was always in her blood.
She enjoyed major league games as well as old Burlington Bees games. When the team returned as the Indians in 1986, she became a regular attendee with friend Anne Trousdell. The pair were dubbed The Baseball Anns.
More than once, Cook’s devotion to the game took her to extraordi-nary lengths.
A trip to an Atlanta Braves home game seven years ago had the fanatic blocking traffic to get the autograph of one of her favorite players. Favorite Tom Glavine wasn’t giving autographs after the game. Disappointed, she and James left the stadium.
“Everybody was leaving the ball-park, and traffic was stopped,” Amy Cook said. “She and dad see Tom Glavine sitting in his car in stopped traffic. My mom takes off running across three lanes of traffic and knocked on his window. She said, ‘Can I have the autograph now?’ He gave it to her.”
Even an eight-month battle with cancer couldn’t keep her from the team and game she loved most. As the Indians became the Royals this year, Cook rooted for the team from her usual seat behind the third-base dugout.
“She was determined, even through her sickness. When we didn’t think there was any way she could make it to that baseball game, she made it,” Amy Cook said. “That was the one place she had to be.”
Tags: green acres lyrics, green acres song, green acres song lyrics, green acres theme, green acres theme lyrics