There are plenty of ways to go wrong when singing the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley Field. The worst, however, is toforget -- or not ever know -- the lyrics. Think Ozzy Osbourne signing jibberish; Denise Richards visibly scrambling for her lyrics sheets (in what was surely a stunt staged for her awful reality show); Devin Hester wrestling and then murdering the song into oblivion. These are the ingredients for glorious failure, and they happen time and time again.
All the indicators where there during Mr. T's rendition of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame," but lo and behold, T pulled it off:
Sure, it was a little growly -- a soft falsetto, his voice is not -- but guess what? He knew all the lyrics. He kept the pace of the song moving well. He finished on a (relatively) high note, and he even changed up the typical "Let's get some runs!" closer to a chant of "Go Cubs Go." An interesting artistic decision from a consistent interesting artist. Andy Warhol -- and Harry Caray -- would be proud.
Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.
