High above the field where Curt Schilling, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz play baseball, 11-year-old Brian Wardwell sang the song he always sings at ballparks, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
At 10:30 a.m. Friday, long before the crowds packed Boston’s Fenway Park, Wardwell rehearsed.
He listened to the echo of his voice. And he tried to imagine Sunday afternoon, when more than 34,000 fans will fill the seats and the players, ball caps over their hearts, will stand and listen to his solo rendition of the national anthem.
“I just try to zone it all out,” said Brian, interviewed by phone as he headed home to Maine. He can ignore the echo. He can forget the crowd.
However, the setting and the presence of his baseball heroes will be unique.
“It’s so cool,” the Little League pitcher said. “It’s the best place there is to sing this song.”
It’s a song with which Brian, who lives in Limerick, has become identified, even more than the cowboy songs that drew stranding-room-only crowds the past two years at Lewiston’s Festival de Joie.
“I don’t sing it like a lot of people,” Brian said. “I don’t like the fancy stuff.”
His is a no-fuss rendition.
He dumps the vocal gymnastics of some, who improvise notes and warble their way along. He just does it.
“He’ll do fine,” said Les Otten, who suggested the youngster for Sunday’s Maine Day game.
A minority owner of the team and a Mainer, Otten checked out Brian’s Web site at the suggestion of a friend.
Brian sounded good, so Otten sent the boy’s name to the Boston office. On Wednesday, a worker for the Red Sox called Brian’s mom, Monica.
The worker’s first question: Will he be too nervous?
“I think he’ll be more nervous here than he’s ever been,” said his dad, Adam. “This one is special.”
It’s been Brian’s dream for four years.
But too nervous? Not at all, Adam said.
Brian has always seemed cool on stage. He doesn’t get flustered.
He has sung the anthem for the Portland Pirates and the Portland Sea Dogs. He has sung it at professional lacrosse games and athletic events at Boston University.
When Brian steps up Sunday to the microphone near home plate, his dad will be standing nearby. His mom will be in the stands with his little sister, Alyssa, 9.
They’ll listen to the crowd’s reaction. And they’ll watch to see if Brian will get to meet any of his heroes.
“I’m sure he’ll charm whoever is with him,” Monica Wardwell said.
Brian said he’d love to meet his favorite player, Jonathan Papelbon. But he holds out little hope of that. He said team helpers told him all about what to expect Sunday. They never mentioned anything about his heroes.
“I think they would have told me,” he said
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