As I lay my head upon my blue and red pillow, I thank you for the many blessings of today. Please send down your healing hands upon our helmets, grant our opponents a peaceful sooner-than-expected rest this winter, and give us another day to honor our fans. If it is not too much to ask, given our century-long wait for these sweet sweet victories, may we honor our fans with eight more wins this year? In Ernie’s name, amen. #ACubsPrayer #WeAreGood
-
-
Working 4 the Cubs: Annette Bismarck
One of the benefits of singing for the teams in the Cubs’ organization is that I get to meet fascinating people who work for these teams. Whenever I sing at a new ballpark, I usually leave my seat around the third inning to explore the stadium. A student of architecture and city planning while at Notre Dame, I enjoy comparing the layouts and amenities at each of the ball parks. As I turned the corner by the concessions stands under the main grandstand, I came upon the Cub House, a shop where you can buy all kinds of apparel and gifts from the Daytona Cubs. Since I always buy a ball cap…
-
Singing 4 the Cubs: Daytona Cubs
Following a year of playing with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues, Jackie Robinson signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers on October 23, 1945 and was assigned to the Dodgers’ AAA affiliate – the Montreal Royals. Five months later, the players in the Brooklyn Dodgers organization reported to the 1946 spring training in Jacksonville, Florida. This was two years before “Dodger Town” in Bradenton, Florida was completed. After a couple weeks of drills and inter-squad games, the major league Dodgers were ready to play a game against Robinson and the Royals. Segregation was still pervasive in Florida and throughout the South at this time. When the day of the…
-
On the Air: WNDB-AM
Daytona, Florida – Prior to singing the National Anthem for the Daytona Cubs, I had the honor of sitting and talking with Marc Bernier on WNDB-AM radio. Click on the arrow above to listen to the interview. My friend Marc is the former husband of my dear friend and high school classmate Melodye Browning Bernier. Since their family lives in the Daytona area, when they heard about my trip to sing in Daytona, Marc invited me to appear on his daily show. [Side note: For many years Melodye taught music to grade schoolers, including future Braves slugger Chipper Jones. She once gave him a B in music. When the class…
-
Working 4 the Cubs: Nate Wilder
One of the benefits of singing for the teams in the Cubs’ organization is that I get to meet many fascinating people who work for these teams. When I sang for the Boise Hawks, I had the pleasure to meet Nate Wilder, scoreboard operator for the Hawks. CF: Nate, I know you have a lot of responsibilities in your job — what do you like most about your work for the Boise Hawks? NW: I love working for the Boise Hawks. Operating the scoreboard is fun and also there’s a bit of process. Not only is there the game pushing of the buttons for ball/strike, out, hit/error, runs/inning runs, there also is…
-
On the Air: KTIK-FM
Following an unfortunate microphone malfunction when I sang the National Anthem, Todd Rahr, the general manager for the Boise Hawks, invited me to the press box. I had just finished singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame at the seventh inning stretch when Todd said “Hey, come up to press box and I’ll put you on air with our radio announcer. He can interview you between pitches and you can talk about your campaign to sing for all the Cubs’ teams.” “Okay,” I said, “sounds like fun.” So Todd and I walked up to the press box and he introduced me to Mike Safford, voice of the Boise Hawks. Someone…
-
Singing 4 the Cubs: Boise Hawks
When I created this Singing 4 the Cubs campaign, I knew it would take a lot of planning. Assuming I can get an invitation to sing at each of the ballparks (and there’s no certainty of that – I only have three confirmed stops on my map), the biggest question is how will I get to those ballparks? Drive? Fly? Singing for the Tennessee Smokies was easy enough; it was just a 3.5 hour drive from our home in southwest Nashville. Singing in the other cities will take more planning, a little luck and a lot of Southwest Airlines points. Still, as I scheduled my flight to sing the National Anthem for the Boise…
-
Working 4 the Cubs: Wells Ford
One of the benefits of singing for the teams in the Chicago Cubs’ organization is that I get to met some great people who work for these teams. When I sang for the Tennessee Smokies, I met Wells Ford who has sold programs at Smokies Park for nine seasons. Originally from Brooklyn, Wells and I talked about NYC baseball and how the greater New York City area supported three major league teams (Yankees, Dodgers and Giants) until the 1958 season. I’ve been to Brooklyn once, but never got to visit the area where Ebbets Field was located. I’ve never seen a ballgame in New York and would love to visit Yankee…
-
Singing 4 the Cubs: Tennessee Smokies
It’s moments before I am introduced as the game’s National Anthem singer and I am standing just off the grass, singing the first lines of the song over and over again. Every so often, I blow the note D3 on my pitch pipe. That’s the D below middle C, my starting note. Today I’m in Sevierville to sing the National Anthem for the Tennessee Smokies, the Double A team in the Chicago Cubs organization. It’s the next stop on my quest to sing the “Star Spangled Banner” for all the teams in the Cubs’ farm system. You see, I love to sing the National Anthem at baseball games. Even more…
-
Publicity 4 the Cubs: The Tennessean
Musical ministry carries Bellevue man from cathedrals to Cubs game Published in The Tennessean – October 6, 2004 Bellevue – With pitch pipe in hand, Bellevue resident Chris Fenoglio stepped onto Wrigley Field. At first, he was completely calm, he said. “Then I felt the jitters, the nervous butterflies.” Then Fenoglio began singing the national anthem, fulfilling a dream at the beginning of that September 27 game between the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds. “I just smiled and relaxed and thought “This is so great,” recalled Fenoglio, who was invited to sing The Star-Spangled Banner at the game. “When I got to ‘the rockets’ red glare,’ that’s when it kicked…
