Ballplayers have sung the "Star Spangled Banner" prior to games, most famously by Dwight Smith, Sr. when he was with the Cubs back in the day.
Make room for St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright.
Video courtesy Bally Sports Midwest & Major League Baseball.
Wainwright, who is, in fact, retiring after this season, will mark the occasion by releasing a country music album. I wonder if he got the idea from recently retired ump and country singer Joe West......!
Oh, by the way, St. Louis lost, 10-9, to Toronto.
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Both of last year's World Series teams fell in defeat on Thursday as well.
Houston dropped a 3-2 decision to the Chicago White Sox, as Yordan Alvarez's solo shot in the 9th wasn't quite enough.
Earlier, in Arlington, the Philadelphia Phillies spoiled Jacob deGrom's Rangers debut, knocking him out in the 4th inning in going to an early 5-0 lead. Unfortunately, the Phillies' pen is still poison, as the newest Phillie, Gregory Soto (Detroit) was tagged with the loss as Texas came back to win, 11-7. Par for the course for deGrom, who had more no decisions than wins with the Mets the last few years.
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The Mets, on the other hand, got good & bad news on Thursday.
The bad: Justin Verlander's NL debut will have to wait, as he is on the IL with an injury. Tylor Megill will be recalled from Syracuse to make the start at Miami on Saturday.
The good: Max Scherzer went 6 in his season opener, and while his defense coughed up an early 3-0 lead, the offense made up for it with 2 runs in the 7th, and David Robertson (Cubs/Philadelphia) closed out a 5-2 win. The Mets, in their history, are a ridiculous 41-21 on Opening Day.
What really cost Miami was their peabrained decision to put Jazz Chisholm, Jr. in the outfield. In that 7th inning, Chisholm got torched on a double by Brandon Nimmo, driving in the winning runs.
No truth to the rumor that new Miami manager Skip Schumaker replaced Billy the Marlin with a team of elves as the Marlins' mascot(s).
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The most annoying thing Thursday was MLB Network's sudden obsession with Angels ace/DH Shohei Ohtani.
In the run-up to the season opener vs. Oakland, every time they cut away to Oakland, they resorted to changing their "Ballpark Cam" to "Ohtani Cam". Look, we get it. Ohtani figures to be a major free agent after the season, but this joke will get run into the ground if they insist on using it all season.
It must have been a bad omen, since Oakland, with newly acquired Kyle Muller (Atlanta) defeated the Angels.
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