Unexpected Celebrity National Anthems: Phish

At a New Jersey Nets game several years ago:

Tom Green unleashes the fury at Washington Capitals games

From the Washington Post:

For several years now, Caps fans have risen to their feet late in the third period and screamed "Unleash the Fury" along with Tom Green, as the culmination of the team's late-game rally video. Saturday night, the Tom Green who screamed inside Verizon Center happened to be about 15 pounds heavier, and wearing a red Mike Green jersey. (Video below.)

How did this happen?

Well, Michael Wurman was hired as director of game entertainment and TV production last season, he immediately thought about trying to integrate Green into the team's Unleash the Fury sensation, which has produced posters and t-shirts and personalized jerseys and other bits of Fury. He reached out to Green's team, but never heard back. As the playoffs approached, Wurman sent a message through Green's Web site, and lo and behold, he soon got a phone call from Green's agent, who passed him on to Green's publicist.

It turned out the comic was coming to D.C. in the late spring, and so Wurman crafted a plan to get Green inside the building for a playoff game. Alas, the Caps were eliminated before Green's scheduled visit.

In late July, though, Green had a gig at the D.C. Improv, and so the effort was renewed, and everyone agreed this was the time. Wurman and his crew went to the Improv with the Mike Green jersey and a guitar to mimic the original scene, and within 30 minutes they had what they needed. Their version of the scene starts with a wider shot than the original, so that the Caps logo and red jersey are immediately apparent, but other than that, it's a pretty close match.

Leslie Nielson sings the Star Spangled Banner

Leslie Nielson, playing Lt. Frank Drebin, pretending to be opera singer Enrico Pallazzo. (Thanks Kmac for the link.)

The Presidential First Pitch

Mental Floss has a good round-up about the history of the "Presidential Pitch". Here are some highlights:

Last Tuesday, President Barack Obama threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Washington Nationals home opener against the Philadelphia Phillies. It wasn’t pretty. Obama’s pitch was high and outside, which juxtaposes nicely with the too-low toss that was the first presidential opening day pitch, made 100 years ago today.*

On April 14, 1910, President William Taft, an avid sports fan, went to see the Washington play their home opener against, coincidentally, Philadelphia (back then, however, the teams were the Senators and the Athletics). A few members of his administration came along, including military aide Archibald Butt. Just before the game started, umpire Billy Evans walked over to Taft’s seat on the first base line, unprompted, and handed him a new baseball. He asked the president to throw the ball from the stands to Senators pitcher Walter Johnson at home plate to officially start the American League season. Taft rose, turned and threw a right-handed pitch low and inside. Contemporary accounts say the throw had little grace or style, but Johnson caught it and the crowd went nuts. Washington beat Philadelphia 3-0 and Taft later autographed the ball for the team.

Taft threw out the first pitch of the 1911 season, too, but the budding tradition experienced some growing pains in the following years. Taft skipped the 1912 home opener when his close friend Butt went down with the Titanic —on the return trip from a vacation Taft had urged him to take. The United States occupation of Veracruz kept Woodrow Wilson from throwing the first pitch of 1914, and he missed four more home openers because of World War I (1917 and 1918), the Paris Peace Conference (1919) and a stroke (1920).

Even with the shaky start, the president’s ceremonial pitch became cemented as a part of baseball tradition. Read more...

Mariah Carey throws the ceremonial first pitch at a Japanese baseball game

At least she didn't sing the National Anthem!


(via Balls)