This weekend Boston, and everyone who loves baseball, is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park-for some, America's Best Loved and oldest operating baseball stadium (not so much the former in my house). Who else but the New York Yankees would you bring to town to help you celebrate a centennial? (My first guess was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir but their farm team hasn't produced a decent second baseman in a decade).
Game time this afternoon is 4:05 and tickets are, theoretically, available. I would hope Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo would have the game on NESN but it's probably Joe Buck and Tim McCarver on Fox. I assume it's the Fox Game of the Week because it's a no-brainer and when you add that to Fox Sports, the low-hanging fruit is so low, it's on the shelf in the grocer's.
There's probably no chance the TV guys are going to carry the singing of the National Anthem because they've sold all that time already and 162 games in a season times 240 teams in the league (or are those just the ones who make the playoffs; with all the wildcard stuff I forget) we're talking decades of singing.
Which is too bad, today, because for those going they get to hear a Sudbury Home Girl, Linda Chorney (I spelled it right the first time, for a change) who now hangs her hat in Sea Bright, New Jersey (second only to Ocean Grove as my favorite shore retreat; Point Pleasant Beach and its North Pole Bar is my all-time crazy time place to go) do the honors on that well-known Francis Scott Key composition
Her Emotional Jukebox is the best record you've never heard (or heard of) and is an absolute gem mostly because, as even a casual read of her blog will reveal, she is very passionate and articulate about those things she chooses to write and sing about. She was almost well-known for winning a Grammy for Best Americana Album, but she didn't win one and so became well-known for how she almost won one which seemed to upset a lot of people who regard music as product. My technical term for such people is azzhole.
Singing at Fenway is a bucket list item for her as, slight character flaw, she roots for the Sox. I'm grateful her husband is a Yankees fan. Here's a great tune from her that you should enjoy even if you're a Royals' fan, though I'm not sure they are actually real. I, for one, have always enjoyed the observation by blackbirdilona in commenting on the song.
But since we can't see her sing the Star-Spangled Banner, I'll offer you a gem buried deep in her blog-a spontaneous collaboration she did with Shaun Hopper a few weeks ago and that always makes me smile-even, and especially, if her Red Sox manage to beat my Yankees.
-bill kenny
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