This just in from the Dodgers…can’t wait to see the video. One note about the Baby Ruth contest listed below: what the release does not state is that the winner gets to lead the crowd in singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game at the 2008 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. It’s an awesome prize (full disclosure: I work on this promotion).
LOS ANGELES – Hall of Fame Manager and Special Advisor to the Chairman Tommy Lasordawill sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field. Lasorda will make his sixth appearance at Wrigley Field tomorrow singing baseball’s anthem, as his previous performances came in 1999, 2002, ’03, ’05, and ’06.
“Singing ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ during the seventh-inning stretch is an institution in baseball,” said Lasorda. “I am honored to be asked, and look forward to leading the fans in the song.”
As 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” Major League Baseball and Baby Ruth teamed up to offer one lucky fan a once-in-a-lifetime prize for the best video performance of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Fans had the chance to enter their video rendition of the song from March 31 through May 26. In June, ten semi-finalists’ videos, selected by MLB and Baby Ruth, will be posted for fan voting online. The three videos with the most votes will go to 2008 DHL All-Star FanFest where a panel of judges will determine the grand prize winner.
The “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” song was originally 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 the United States 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 every conceivable genre have recorded the song including Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, LL Cool J, The Goo Goo Dolls and Jimmy Buffett. The original lyrics are now part of the collection at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown .