The singing umpire
Last night I was part of a 4 man crew working a Senior LL All Star game. Before the game, the PA announcer asks the 4 of us our names for the introductions. One of my partners asks if anyone is singing the National Anthem, nobody was, so he volunteers to sing it. We then take a quick trip to the porta-potty before going onto the field and after he goes in I begin to hear singing coming from the PP. Yes he was doing his voice warm up exercises in the john. I’m trying to contain my laughter as he emerges. We go onto the field. Kids are warming up as we prepare for the introductions and he is doing more warm up singing and the kids are looking at him like, huh? We have introductions, teams lined up along the 1st and 3rd base lines, 4 umpires in crisp powder blue shirts lined up at the plate and the announcer says that “Chaz J______ our 2nd base umpire will sing our National Anthem a capella.” Chaz slowly walks to the base of the mound, turns and faces home plate, and this retired Coast Guard officer who deeply loves his country sang our National Anthem with conviction, heart and grace. Everyone roundly applauded Chaz. For that experience, I would've done the game for free (actually I did; it was volunteer).
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