Millar's glory days video is boss at Fenway Park

By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff, 8/30/2003

So what if he's a Jersey boy? For his grit, for his music, for his "Thunder Road" rendition on the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, for his upcoming concert in Fenway Park, Bruce Springsteen has always seemed Bostonian in spirit, inimitable, irreplaceable.

Until last weekend's debut, on Fenway's Diamond Vision, of the "Rally Karaoke Guy."

It's a 30-second piece of grainy videotape from sometime in the 1980s that the Red Sox have been playing on the ballpark's screen for late-inning motivation. Think: the pounding strains of Springsteen's "Born in the USA." Think: the thrusting hips and earnest lip-synching of a first-baseman-to-be named Kevin Millar.

Think: The Red Sox have won 6 of 7 games since the video debuted.

Set aside, for now, the cosmic significance of it all, the fact that this musical good-luck charm appeared in the midst of a playoff bid, on the eve of a hometown series against the Yankees. The fact is, there's only a week until Springsteen's two-night Fenway homestand. And suddenly, it looks like Bruce has some competition. This hip-thrusting, fist-pumping, cowboy-upping baseball player just about out-Bosses the Boss.

Such is the power of the video clip that emerged from obscurity in late July, when the Sox were down in Texas visiting the Rangers. It belonged to an old college teammate of Millar's from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, Red Sox spokesman Kevin Shea said.

He is an FBI agent now. And he thought the Red Sox ought to have a copy.

Manager Grady Little called a team meeting, Shea said, and told the assembled players that the FBI had brought him a matter of concern. He cued up a videotape. And there was Millar, in full Springsteenian glory.

He does, indeed, manage to channel Bruce. In the 1984 video for "Born in the USA," Springsteen is East Coast gritty, in a sweatband and a jean jacket. He sings earnestly into the mike, pumps his fist for emphasis once or twice, and ends with that signature pose, back turned to the camera, before an American flag, with, it should be noted, a red baseball cap sticking out of his back pocket.

Millar looks Californian, blond hair pushed up in a surfer cowlick. He starts with his back turned, in front of some collegiate-looking furniture. He raises his fist. He shakes his hips and purses his lips. By the end, he's swinging a baseball cap wildly around his head.

What strange chain of events led to the performance, Shea said, is anyone's guess. But Millar's teammates decided it must be shared. Earlier this month, pitcher John Burkett got a copy of the tape and brought it to Charles Steinberg, Fenway's audio-video master, who edited it down to roughly 30 seconds.

"It does capture the finer moments of the performance," Shea said.

At the first showing last weekend, the crowd went wild. In the screenings since, the reaction hasn't changed. People have been dancing in the Monster seats, Shea said. And during Wednesday's game against Toronto, every Blue Jay on the field turned to stare at the video screen.

If that won't intimidate the Yankees, what will?

As for Springsteen, it's anyone's guess how he feels. His publicists won't return calls. Shea is considering getting a copy of the tape to him, and guesses he'll hear about it by the time he takes the stage in center field Saturday night. After all, Millar's Springsteen tribute isn't going away.

"When we need the Rally Karaoke Guy, it will be played," Shea said.

In an uncertain end to the season, it's good to have something to count on.