Published August 18, 2007 07:41 pm -
Auburn students score with musical tribute to Braves’ Teixeira
By Kelly Kazek
kelly@athensnews-courier.com
AUBURN, Ala.
—
On Aug. 31, Andrew Hall planned to be in a seat at Turner Field, watching the Atlanta Braves during his bachelor outing the weekend before his wedding. Now, the graduate student at Auburn University will spend that evening performing live in a pregame show and meeting star player Mark Teixeira and other Braves players.
Hall will sing a song he wrote with pal and future brother-in-law Tyler Crawford, a junior at Auburn, called “Mark Teixeira Tribute.” A videotape of the friends performing the song is one of the most-watched videos on You Tube, leading Braves right fielder Jeff Francouer, officials with the Braves organization and Fox’s Sports South to contact Hall, a 2002 graduate of Athens Bible School, and Crawford about the song.
“The first thing that happened that was like, ‘Whoa, this is crazy,’ was when we reached 700 views or so and the Braves and Sports South messaged me,” Hall said.
Francoeur called with offers of a meet-and-greet with the players, but the Braves organization offered something more — a chance for stardom.
Or at least the chance to hear thousands of fans cheering their performance in the Turner Field Plaza.
A spokeswoman for the Braves said the video had “gone through the office like wildfire” and everyone loved it.
Braves general manager John Schuerholz said Friday his son e-mailed the You Tube link to him — Schuerholz is mentioned in the song — and he had heard the Braves’ marketing department may have some plans for the song but he did not know specifics.
A call to Fox Sports was not returned Friday but Hall and Crawford said a network representative showed interest in using the song on air.
“In his message, he said something about 11 million viewers in the southeast would love to see it,” Hall said.
Network officials wanted them to re-record in the same setting — sitting on a sofa in a college apartment — so the lyrics could be more clearly heard, Crawford said.
By Friday night, more than 9,000 people had gone to the Web site to watch the video in the six days since it was posted.
“It’s insane,” said Crawford, a nursing student and Chelsea resident, by cell phone Friday from Auburn. “When we posted it online, it was just for our friends, then we started getting more hits. It’s just like we can’t even believe it.”