Queen’s baseball team’s spontaneous cameo in new music video

New Abrams video features Kingston as a backdrop

The Abrams music video

Country rockers and Queen’s alum, The Abrams, premiered a music video for their hit single ‘Champion’ on Oct. 27, featuring a familiar backdrop. 

Filmed in the brothers’ hometown of Kingston, the music video tells stories of individual hardships and heroism.  

“The idea to have storylines about community ‘champions’ was largely inspired by our friend, Drew Cumpson, who in his early 20s suffered a spinal chord injury that left him quadriplegic,” said John Abrams stated via email. 

“Most importantly, he hasn’t let his injury stop him, because as he says, he had real champions in his life that have helped him through his own struggle.”

In addition to Cumpson’s story, the video also featured cameos of the Queen’s baseball team. 

According to Abrams, the underlying baseball theme in the video was inspired by the Toronto Blue Jays’s playoff season last year, when the brothers were writing the song. 

“The overarching baseball metaphor runs through the whole song, expressing a sentiment of love through struggle,” Abrams said. “The idea of being someone’s ‘Champion, when the summer ends,’ or when the days get cold and difficult, felt like a good follow-up to our fun-loving summer song ‘Fine’, which was completely optimistic.”

Tim Peters isn’t a country music fan, but the Queen’s catcher noticed a familiar face at his baseball practice this year. 

“I bought a futon from John before school started this year and he delivered it to my house and we had a great conversation,” Peters said. “So when we showed up to practice and they were shooting a video, we recognized each other almost immediately.” 

But this wasn’t supposed to happen. While the baseball team was looking to get an extra practice in, the Abrams brothers had showed up to shoot their video.  

“We tried to squeeze in an extra practice when we didn’t have the field booked, as they had it booked for their video,” Peters said. Rather than push the team away, Peters said, they were invited to join. 

“No one was prepared for it, but it really seemed to work out and bring some extra life to the video.”

And while it was on a whim, Peters said it will help the team in the long run. 

“It’s a great feeling that the team is getting some exposure through a great video,” he said. “We are hoping to gain even more exposure through it and move into next year with some more fans with us, thanks to the Abrams.”

Tags

bands, baseball, Gaels, Kingston, Music, Queen's, The Abrams, video

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