MLB Contest Seeks Seventh Inning Stretch Singers
Major League Baseball and Baby Ruth are looking for one strong voice to deliver the national baseball anthem, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” at the historic All-Star game to be held in Yankee Stadium this season.
Through much of the past century, the familiar tune composed in 1908 by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer, has been sung in unison during the traditional seventh-inning stretch in baseball parks around the country. Major League Baseball is celebrating the song’s centennial season with a contest to excite interest in the start of the current baseball season.
Fans can submit video clips of their renditions of the tune at www.MLB.com/babyruth through May 26. Ten semifinalists’ videos will be selected by MLB and Baby Ruth and posted on the site for fans to vote on. The three top vote getters from that group will compete at the DHL All-Star FanFest, where a panel of judges will pick the winner. The winner will sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at the last All-Star contest to be held in Yankee Stadium, slated to be gutted and replaced next year.
“We’re getting an inordinate number of hits,” said John Brody, MLB senior vice president of corporate sales and marketing.
Baby Ruth—the candy bar mistakenly associated with Babe Ruth – is participating in the promotion by issuing 90 million special-edition Baby Ruth 7th Inning Stretch candy bars this season that will be 30% larger than the normal bar. It launches a national ad campaign around the song promotion next week. (The candy bar was actually named after a girl named Ruth, not the famed Yankee slugger whose nickname was eventually tied to it.)
“They’re taking it to places we wouldn’t be able to go w/this program,” said Brody.
MLB is pushing awareness nationally with signage during national game broadcasts and drop-ins to be read by game announcers. It’s also being plugged on the front page of the MLB.com site. MLB will also be plugging the voting period from June 9 to June 30.
On a local level, all 30 MLB clubs are conducting their own contests – promoted in various ways during opening week game telecasts—with prizes being awarded to some local winners, including opportunities to sing the classic tune live during their home team’s seventh inning stretch.
