A high school band teacher won the Baby Ruth-sponsored contest to lead the crowd at Yankee Stadium in singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during tonight’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Adam Wilbur got a big assist from his twin brother Fred, also a high school band teacher, who accompanied Adam’s vocalizing on the tuba for the video they submitted for the contest. Adam sings during tonight’s seventh inning stretch.
In a sing-off against two other finalists in the contest at the MLB FanFest New York City’s Javits Convention Center yesterday, Wilbur, 28, of Medford, NY, was pitted against Chad Gunderson of Sherman Oaks, CA, and Robert Huffman of Birmingham, AL. Each sang baseball’s unofficial anthem a cappella with three celebrity judges making the call.
Impressed with all three contestants before they made their choice were: Former Yankees centerfielder Bernie Williams, an accomplished guitarist, actor William Peterson from “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Extra” entertainment reporter AJ Calloway.
“They were all great,” Williams said.
More than 620,000 Web surfers voted in the selection of the three singers last month from among several hundred who submitted videos of renditions of the song to http://www.MLB.com/babyruth.
“I feel good. I didn’t come here expecting to win,” said Adam Wilbur, who described his immediate reaction as “excitement, followed by extreme fear” about leading 56,000 fans in song at the last All-Star Game to be played in Yankee Stadium.
Fred Wilbur was a little disappointed that he wouldn’t get to share the spotlight with his brother, but was also elated about the victory.
“The fact that we won is just awesome,” he said.
But Baby Ruth, which is sampling its popular candy bar at the FanFest and at the All-Star Game, may keep both Wilbur brothers in the spotlight. Asked whether the winning video might have a post-All-Star afterlife, Tricia Bowles, brand manager for Nestlé Brands, said “It just might now. Who knows? We’ll see what happens from here.”
The Wilburs cleverly added a reprise about Baby Ruth in the arrangement on their video, which logically improves the odds that it may find a much larger audience in a TV spot.
The Wilburs recording of the tune, penned by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Pilzer in 1908, follows renditions by a few other notable vocalists, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin.
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