The only thing worth betting on with the National Anthem is how badly the guest singer messes it up.
I have seen some truly disastrous performances of the song at MLB games.
The best performances I ever saw were Robert Merrill and a US Navy Chief Musician in the 1978 World Series, and Merrill again, the first game after Thurman Munson died.
Many years ago, on a subway train, I met a teenage girl named Rachel Louise Minke, and her handlers.
She was going around the country, singing the National Anthem at various venues. The handlers told me so. They wouldn't let her talk. They told me what an amazing talent she was. She just nodded.
I didn't mention Trilby and Svengali to them.
She sang the National Anthem at Shea Stadium at a game I was covering. Or, at least, she tried to. Something went wrong with the microphone and sound system, and nobody heard her. She didn't notice.
I don't know what happened to her.
On "Irish-American Night," September 12, 1985, at Yankee Stadium, Mary O'Dowd butchered the Canadian National Anthem, which is incredibly easy to sing. The fans booed her performance. She stood there, apologized to the Canadian fans, and left the field in tears.
Canadian Consul General Ken Taylor, hero of the 1979-81 Iran hostage crisis, was George Steinbrenner's guest that night, in his box, and he was furious. So was The Boss.
Next day, he summoned the Voice of Yankee Stadium, Bob Sheppard, to a meeting of Yankee bigshots to address the catastrophe. As it happened, the blunder upset Sheppard, and the St. John's speech professor wrote his own text to read before the game on the subject.
Instead, Steinbrenner presented him with a two-page address. Sheppard shook his head. "It should be short, concise, and to the point."
Steinbrenner promptly threatened to fire Sheppard, an even bigger public relations disaster.
Sheppard presented The Boss with his statement. Steinbrenner said, "Well, I'll look this over with my baseball people, and we'll decide."
A short time later, one of Steinbrenner's aides handed Sheppard his speech back. Unchanged. "The Boss says it's okay," said the aide. And that's what Sheppard read before the three remaining games in the series.
Never heard from Mary O'Dowd, though....I guess she sings the National Anthem for the Yankee farm team in Malaysia.
I'm not a puritan either, but I fully agree that gambling is a growing plague. My first job out of massage school was at a hotel-casino's spa. It was owned and run by a Native tribe, off its reservation. The rez wasn't as bad as some of the horror stories that regularly get national attention (e.g., Pine Ridge), but it was pretty bad. It wasn't rare to see pickup trucks loaded up with furniture, etc. in the parking lot, or ancient vehicles that were barely hanging together. I remember noticing one loaded pickup that sat in the same spot at least two days (I didn't work the days before and after, so it could have been longer).
I lasted at that job less than nine soul-draining months.
These are people who can’t be bothered to follow actual news so they can be informed about what actual reality is. So, they believe bullshit sound bites that fit between their ears.
There was a book I read a long time ago called Amusing Ourselves to Death. It seems to fit the situation. OTOH, Rome had bread and circuses, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Don’t know the Latin for that.
The only thing worth betting on with the National Anthem is how badly the guest singer messes it up.
I have seen some truly disastrous performances of the song at MLB games.
The best performances I ever saw were Robert Merrill and a US Navy Chief Musician in the 1978 World Series, and Merrill again, the first game after Thurman Munson died.
Oh, no doubt. I have long said that the national anthem at baseball games is proof that there are people who can't sing in every city in America
Many years ago, on a subway train, I met a teenage girl named Rachel Louise Minke, and her handlers.
She was going around the country, singing the National Anthem at various venues. The handlers told me so. They wouldn't let her talk. They told me what an amazing talent she was. She just nodded.
I didn't mention Trilby and Svengali to them.
She sang the National Anthem at Shea Stadium at a game I was covering. Or, at least, she tried to. Something went wrong with the microphone and sound system, and nobody heard her. She didn't notice.
I don't know what happened to her.
On "Irish-American Night," September 12, 1985, at Yankee Stadium, Mary O'Dowd butchered the Canadian National Anthem, which is incredibly easy to sing. The fans booed her performance. She stood there, apologized to the Canadian fans, and left the field in tears.
Canadian Consul General Ken Taylor, hero of the 1979-81 Iran hostage crisis, was George Steinbrenner's guest that night, in his box, and he was furious. So was The Boss.
Next day, he summoned the Voice of Yankee Stadium, Bob Sheppard, to a meeting of Yankee bigshots to address the catastrophe. As it happened, the blunder upset Sheppard, and the St. John's speech professor wrote his own text to read before the game on the subject.
Instead, Steinbrenner presented him with a two-page address. Sheppard shook his head. "It should be short, concise, and to the point."
Steinbrenner promptly threatened to fire Sheppard, an even bigger public relations disaster.
Sheppard presented The Boss with his statement. Steinbrenner said, "Well, I'll look this over with my baseball people, and we'll decide."
A short time later, one of Steinbrenner's aides handed Sheppard his speech back. Unchanged. "The Boss says it's okay," said the aide. And that's what Sheppard read before the three remaining games in the series.
Never heard from Mary O'Dowd, though....I guess she sings the National Anthem for the Yankee farm team in Malaysia.
I'm not a puritan either, but I fully agree that gambling is a growing plague. My first job out of massage school was at a hotel-casino's spa. It was owned and run by a Native tribe, off its reservation. The rez wasn't as bad as some of the horror stories that regularly get national attention (e.g., Pine Ridge), but it was pretty bad. It wasn't rare to see pickup trucks loaded up with furniture, etc. in the parking lot, or ancient vehicles that were barely hanging together. I remember noticing one loaded pickup that sat in the same spot at least two days (I didn't work the days before and after, so it could have been longer).
I lasted at that job less than nine soul-draining months.
These are people who can’t be bothered to follow actual news so they can be informed about what actual reality is. So, they believe bullshit sound bites that fit between their ears.
There was a book I read a long time ago called Amusing Ourselves to Death. It seems to fit the situation. OTOH, Rome had bread and circuses, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Don’t know the Latin for that.
truly a disease gone amuck there.