Quite possibly the worst rendition of the National Anthem of all time @Starting9 (via @T_Funds_) pic.twitter.com/rFDgyPmeZp
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) May 5, 2019
What exactly is this man doing? Yes, I know he’s attempting to sing the Star Spangled Banner at a baseball game, but what is he doing? And more importantly, why is he doing it? Did he just discover right now, here in this moment, that he suffers from crippling anxiety? Did he overshoot his vocal cord and social lubrication targets by a couple of miles? Is he dying of something and this is his make a wish?
I figured it had to be at least one of those things or that perhaps he’s spent his entire life away from civilization and was rescued and cleaned up right before show time (How else do you forget the words to the American anthem?), but no. Turns out it was just cramps. Brain ones would be my guess.
It happened Sunday, before a game between the High Point Rockers and Sugar Land Skeeters and involved a “last minute fill in,” Fox Carolina reported. High Point is about 80 miles northeast of Charlotte.
Video posted on Facebook by TV station WXII reports Rockers employee Chuck Hayworth was the singer, and it shows him struggling with both the melody and the lyrics. The results include uncomfortable pauses, skipped lines and occasional shouting.
Hayworth apologized later on social media, explaining he developed cramps from getting overheated just before starting “and you saw what happened,” the station reported.
“By no means was this any disrespect to our country or our organization, nor all those who serve it,” WFMY quoted Hayworth as saying.The team apologized, too, saying “the rendition was not up to organizational standards,” and noting the singer was standing in for someone who got sick at the last minute, GreensboroSports.com reports.
How much worse could the sick guy have sounded, I wonder.