Boston Red Sox Host Spring Training Fan Talent Competition Celebrating 100th Anniversary of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"

By admin - Posted on March 6th, 2008

Search part of Major League Baseball 2008 Opening Week Initiative

FORT MYERS, Fla., 03/04/2008 -- The Boston Red Sox are searching for the best fan performance of the popular baseball anthem Take Me Out to the Ballgame during Spring Training as part of the League-wide celebration of the iconic song's 100th anniversary. One lucky winner will receive the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to perform Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the 7th Inning Stretch of a Red Sox home game during the 2008 season.

Fans attending select Boston Red Sox games at the City of Palms Park can showcase their musical talents by performing the 7th Inning Stretch classic in a special staging area located near the Edison Avenue gate at City of Palms Park (on the first base side of the field). The booth will be run by representatives from Florida Gulf Coast University along with Red Sox personnel, and event staff will film all auditions for the judges.

The competition will run from 10:35 am - 1:30 pm every game day between March 4 - 13, and the winner will be announced on March 15. At the conclusion of the competition, a panel of representatives from the Red Sox front office and Spring Training complex will review the videotaped performances to select the grand prize winner. Contestants will be judged on the basis of talent, creativity, their love of the game of baseball, and of the Red Sox, and the intangible quality that is present in all those who are born entertainers.

The competition is part of the Major League Baseball 2008 Opening Week initiative. During Spring Training and the opening weeks of the 2008 season, clubs League-wide will host in-park Take Me Out to the Ballgame competitions with all winners receiving the opportunity to perform the song at their home ballparks during the season. A national contest to find the most talented performer of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" will also take place during the first few months of the 2008 baseball season where fans will be able to enter by submitting a video clip of their performance at MLB.com. One fan will have their rendition of this iconic song named as the grand prize winner, and they will have the unique honor of leading the crowd in the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the 7th Inning Stretch of the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame was composed in 1908 by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer, neither of whom had ever been to a Major League Baseball game. The song is the third most frequently sung tune in America after Happy Birthday and the Star Spangled Banner, and has sold over 10 million copies in sheet music and/or records. Over the past one hundred years, more than 400 musicians in ever conceivable genre have recorded the song including Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, LL Cool J and Jimmy Buffett. The original lyrics are now part of the collection at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown.

Source: MLB

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