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And as far as we can tell, he’s now the only person to perform the anthem at all 30 current MLB stadiums.ĭoepke, 70, grew up in the Milwaukee area and taught music to fifth through 12th graders for 33 years, including the high school band. He’s just a normal dude who had a silly goal that turned into his white whale. He does not sound or look like the over-singing ingenues that are usually trotted out to perform the anthem before every game. Doepke is not rich or connected to powerful people or a former “American Idol” finalist. I wanted to share his story with you because it gives me hope in a time when I’m grasping at any slivers of it. I had no idea that tweet would spark a friendship that would last 13 years and counting, and give me a front row seat to Doepke’s decade-plus-long attempt to crisscross the country on his own dime and convince every MLB team to let him play the anthem in their stadiums on a trumpet he’s used since junior high school. I simply sent a tweet complimenting him on a well-played anthem in which every note was pure and true and poignant and simple. I’d never met him before, nor did I think I’d ever talk to him again after that day. The trumpet player in question was named Jim Doepke. sporting event until the end of time, they should just fire up Houston’s recording because it will never be topped). (Quite frankly, if they’re going to insist on playing this song before every U.S. And he proceeded to play the most beautiful version of “The Star Spangled Banner” I’d heard since Whitney Houston’s famous Super Bowl rendition. Onto the infield walked a man and his trumpet. For someone like me who feels mortification by proxy whenever others humiliate themselves, I often find myself holding my breath and walking the concourses when “Oooooooh saaaaaay” floods through the stadium loudspeakers so I don’t have to watch.īut that day back in 2009 was different. And don’t get me started on the auteurs who go out there and sing the correct words to an entirely different melody. Seventy-five percent butchered at least one note. Twenty-five percent of those singers messed up a word or two. There was one point when I was working for ESPN that I attended so many sporting events a year I must have heard the song sung live 200 times per annum. Second, the song is damn near impossible to sing well. I’ve always thought that the purple mountains majesty of “America the Beautiful” would make for a better tone setter for our country. First of all, it’s a poor choice for our anthem, in my opinion, because it’s a bloody, stilted poem about bombs bursting in air.
![the star spangled banner song for a trumpet the star spangled banner song for a trumpet](https://d29ci68ykuu27r.cloudfront.net/items/21390091/look_insides/large_file/file_1_page_1.png)
I remember nothing from that game except for the man who played the trumpet right before it began.Ģ009 was long before anyone thought to kneel during the national anthem, but truth be told, I always had some misgivings about “The Star-Spangled Banner” being played before sporting events. Thirteen years ago, when I was only a few seasons into my career as a sportswriter, I took my seat in the press box in Viera, Fla., for a Nationals spring training game against I don’t remember who. Jim Doepke performs the national anthem before an Orioles spring training game in Sarasota, Fla., in March 2011.