28 Comments

What a great story! I am glad he got to hit all 30 teams!

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Thank you for telling his story.

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what a cool story! Wish they would let him play at the All Star Game in LA!

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Ladies and Gentlemen: Molly Knight, at her best.

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Thank you Molly. I love you.

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I love that. Thank you.

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What a great story Molly! I think instrumentals are the best renditions of the National Anthem. And yes, “America The Beautiful” should be our National Anthem.

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Shoot Molly, the bloody stilted poem about bombs bursting in the air is what the war of 1812 was all about. A war to finally end any challenge of British rule and solidify America as an independent nation. War sucks but unfortunately can't be avoided. All that said I hope to hear Mr. Doepke some day.

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Nice work, Molly. As I understand it, the anthem before sporting events started during WW 1. It is a hard song, but I have always enjoyed that the lyrics are two questions, with a lot of description built in: Oh, say can you see? And then, does it still wave? When I took my kids as teenagers on a detour to Fort McHenry, to connect for them the anthem with the event which led to it, they pronounced it The Most Boring Place on Earth. So there’s that.

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It's ok. My daughter (then age 10) also was duly unimpressed. I have been there at least three times and remain moved -all three times - by the anthem and flag display at the end of the park's presentation.

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My kids are all adults now and they still joke about it. Perhaps it would have gone down better had the second half of the plan for the day - exposing them to Thrasher’s French Fries at the Inner Harbor Shops - worked. But alas, unbeknownst to me Thrasher’s had closed between when I lived in DC and that trip. So I managed to pile one let down on top of another. Still, I am with you. I enjoyed it quite a lot, and am partial to a good anthem.

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Wonderful story!

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Whenever I have gone to games in Baltimore, the O’s fans always shout out “OHHH” when the anthem reaches the start of the song’s second “Oh” (the start of the “does it still wave? Section (“Oh, say does that star-spangled ...”) Which always made me wonder, when I went to games in Atlanta, why Braves fans never picked up something like that for the end of the song, the “and the home of the BRAVE” part. Seems like even less of a stretch.

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Fantastic story. I actually love the National anthem on a trumpet. So much more so than singing it. Maybe I will be luck enough to here Mr Doepke some day.

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What a lovely lovely story

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Maybe the best story you've ever written, and that's saying something!

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Thanks, Molly. I agree with you about America the Beautiful. Clean trumpet, cornet, or bugle can sound like fine crystal with the right set of chops. Great story. Just what I needed today.

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Great great story!

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