"O beautiful, Oh say can you see"

Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful before Game 2 of the 2001 World Series, just weeks after 9-11, was probably the most moving several minutes I've ever experienced at a ballpark. I was sitting about eight rows behind the plate next to Joe Black, who had tears streaming down his cheeks. (Joe, who had been Jackie Robinson's roommate on the Dodgers, died several months later.) Anyway, it beat the crap out of every version of the National Anthem I've ever heard.

 

Yeah, I saw him sing it at a Super Bowl... Ravens-Giants, I believe... It was spectacular...

 

James Earl Jones at the 1993 All-Star Game.

 

He's so vain.

 

He sang it before the second Leonard - Duran fight too at the request, I believe, of Ray Charles Leonard.

 

Wasn't there some beauty pageant winner who forgot the words, said something like, "Oh, rats!" and ran off the field crying?

I tried to google that but couldn't come up with anything. All I got was a list of worst national anthems that included Roseanne Barr, Carl Lewis and Christina Aguilera.

 

Amen, brother.

 

Outing myself as one of those band nerds, but I never cared for the long, drawn-out, melodramatic renditions, vocal or instrumental. Our director had us play the song fast and full of energy, bombastic, even. I liked that much better.

 

Actually, a mashup of the national anthem and America the Beautiful would save us all some time.

 

Speaking as a singer, there are few things more nerve racking than singing the anthem. I have a colleague who sings at the Met but has turned down the Toronto Maple Leafs 3 times. As he says, one mistake and you're on every sports highlight show for the rest of your life.

 

Exactly. It's not a damn funeral dirge.

Also, I can't remember if I saw it linked here or somewhere else, but I love the minor-league team that had the singer keep going into the second and third verses just to see the crowd's reaction.

 

For once, I actually agree with you.

Around the Kentucky prep scene, you never hear it before a freshman game (rarely go to them) or a JV game (usually before the varsity game in soccer and volleyball and basketball, usually after the varsity game in baseball and softball), but almost always for a varsity game. Even with the frosh-JV-V tripleheader in volleyball or the JV-V doubleheaders in soccer and basketball.

If the schools want to get really seriously, they'll take the flag out of the gym rafters or off the gym wall and have the JROTC trot it out there. Of course, the ROTC squad can't ever walk off the court/field/playing surface in a straight line and it is maddening when the ROTC squad stops right before the edge of the court/surface.

Nowadays, the cheerleaders are putting their hands on their hearts NOT at the start of the song, but in unison five words in at "see."

Get on with the game already.