Two months after submitting a “Star Spangled Banner” demo to the Boston Red Sox, I received the e-mail I had been waiting for—an offer to my a cappella group to sing the national anthem before a home game at Fenway Park on September 8, 2010—just five days away. But half of the group had previous commitments and were unable to perform on that day, so I was forced to decline the Red Sox’s invitation. To my surprise, the Red Sox then reissued their invitation. “We’d still love to have you sing—can you put together a group for the 8th?” With an opportunity to put together a dream team a cappella group for a one-gig, one-song performance at Fenway Park, I thought of my old Aires compadres and hit the phones. Brad Drazen? “I’m in!” Scott Sylvester ’91? “I’m in!” Peter Fearey ’91? “I’m in!” Peter Harvey? “I’d love to, but I live in Switzerland.” John Ohe ’92? “I’m in!” Younger brother Benjamin Crawford ’92? “I’m in!” The group was rounded out by my brother-in-law and former Aire Bill Ragan ’82 and his son Jimmy Ragan, my father, Jim Crawford ’58, my older brother Henry, my cousin Edward Lovett, friend Keith Williams and Brad Drazen’s two talented sons Noah and Max. We all met on the day of our performance—with singers arriving at different times as they arrived from New York, Hartford, Connecticut, Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.—and rehearsed from noon until 5 p.m. in a conference room overlooking the baseball diamond. It was a magical day, an experience none of us ever could have dreamed up. The performance itself went beautifully and afterward we enjoyed our mini-reunion in a luxury suite while watching the Red Sox pull off an exciting win during a pennant race. A Red Sox film crew videotaped our rehearsal and performance and included a brief segment about our day on their New England Sports Network show, The Red Sox Report. You can watch the segment by visiting this link: http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=12049143&topic_i…. Check out photos of our rehearsal and performance at Benjamin Crawford’s Facebook page and watch an amateur video of our command performance at YouTube by searching for Regular Rob and the September Call Ups.


—Rob Crawford, 27 Roberts Road, Wellesley, MA 02481; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com; Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@ mac.com