They Announced There’d Be No National Anthem Before a Fresno Game, but the Crowd Wasn’t Having It

I’ve complained a great deal about my hometown of California. I’ve written about high taxes, unreasonable regulations, and power-hungry bureaucrats.  So, after all that, I had to point out this great story out of Fresno.

On Friday, Clovis High and Buchanan High met to play the Central Section championship.  Normally, the national anthem is played before each match up.  But not this time.  An announcer came on the loudspeaker and said, “There will be no anthem, let’s just play softball.”

Presumably, event coordinator Bob Kayajanian of the Central Section thought that this would a welcome break from the intense politics that have recently surrounded the Star Spangled Banner.  But that was not the case.  The crowd stood up and sang the national anthem themselves. The Fresno Bee reported:

Many removed their hats and placed their hands over their hearts. Others simply stood tall with pride.

Players stopped their pregame warmups to turn around and face the American flag that waved beyond the center-field wall.

When the song was over, the crowd burst into a round of applause.

“Within seconds, you could hear people in the crowd singing and the volume of their voices building,” said Tiffany Marquez who happened to be in the stands.  “There I was, standing in the middle of a true testament to unity and patriotism.”

Can you imagine the decision that Kayajanian made, especially considering this was Memorial Day weekend?  To his credit, the patriotic display of the fans caused him to rethink his decision:

“The national protocol is the first game of the session you have the national anthem,” he said. “The games after that are just played. We got caught (off-guard). Both the teams turned to face the field and they all started singing the national anthem. They started to play some music and the people took that as the national anthem and they all started singing, which I think is obviously a wonderful thing to show off their patriotism.