Queens Chronicle – Mets fan fulfills dream of singing at Citi Field

In case you’re curious about the road to singing the national anthem at Citi Field.  Interestingly, that’s one of the most frequent keywords that bring people here…so is “Los Marlins” for some reason.

That journey brought him to a long line outside Citi Field on a cold morning in March for the first of two rounds of auditions. Acevedo said he waited approximately six hours for a 30-second shot at impressing a three-judge panel.

For the first round, participants were asked to sing a song of their choosing. Acevedo, who said he’s “fan of all types of music,” went with the operatic piece “Core ’ngrato,” written by Salvatore Cardillo.

Acevedo was invited to return to Flushing for the second round, which called for contestants to croon the anthem as four cameras rolled.

But Acevedo nailed it, and received the phone call a few days later.

via Queens Chronicle – Mets fan fulfills dream of singing at Citi Field.

The double wild card and why it’s better

Bob Costas should have the last laugh – years ago he proposed the double wild card in his book Fair Ball: A Fan’s Case for Baseball and explained why it would be better.  Let me dust off my brain and share…

You make the two wild cards play a one game do or die.  The winner advances to play the #1 seed on the road.

You say that’s unfair?  You had 162 games to win the division.

You make the Wild Cards play on Monday, both have to “waste” their ace, and then travel to play the very next night using their #2 against a #1.

If you’re on the west coast and have to come east, too bad, you had 162 games to win your division.  If you have to travel on Sunday night and again on Monday – too bad, you had 162 games to win your division.

The do or die is dramatic.  The extra Wild Card lets more teams (cough cough) get to pretend they are in it until the end.

There’s actually a premium on winning your division.

I reject the idea of a three game wild card round.  It will cause the division winners to sit around for a week – and we’ve seen in the past what happens when teams sit around for too long.

No brainer.

Oh, and move Houston to the AL West and have one interleague series every day.