One of the biggest surprises – and announcements – from Mayor Tom Henry’s State of the City address had little to do with city government at all.You haven’t really been serenaded until you’ve been serenaded by 50 barbershop quartet singers.
Abby Naas came to this conclusion Saturday before the TinCaps game at Parkview Field.
Near the north entrance of the ballpark, a group of singers gathered – basses on one side, tenors on the other, baritones in the middle – and sang to Naas.
“I love you, Abby,” they sang. “Abby, you’re the one.”
Naas, TinCaps promotions manager, smiled. She couldn’t stop, actually. She might still be smiling now, for all we know.
“That is the coolest thing that ever happened to me,” she said. “I can’t get the smile off my face.”
Earlier in the day, more than 300 singers from Indiana and Kentucky attended the Cardinal District of the Barbershop Harmony Society Convention at the Fort Wayne Hotel and Conference Center. Around 3 p.m., a smaller group – 50 – of them walked down to the ballpark, pulled out their pitch pipes and began singing “My Wild Irish Rose.”
Not a pinstripe, handlebar mustache or straw hat could be found. One singer was wearing a Bob Marley T-shirt, however.
“The ‘Music Man’ look. That’s the stereotype we try hard to overcome,” said Dwight Nash, a member of the Summit City Chorus and a barbershop singer for 50 years. “As you can see, there are a lot of young faces here. We can sing any song – old or new – that has a good melody. We can’t really do hip-hop, though.”
The group performed a handful of traditional barbershop songs such as “Let Me Call You Sweetheart.” Their final song, naturally, was “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” The song ended with a shout of, “Play ball!”
Across the park, you could hear the TinCaps take the field.
