World Series Overlooks Joyce & Steve
Baseball is desperate to develop more diversity among its players, so why isn’t it cultivating more variety among its singers? The roster of national-anthem singers for Games 1 through 4 announced Monday by Major League Baseball for the World Series between the Giants and Royals, which begins tonight in Kansas City, did not include opera singer Joyce DiDonato (pictured), a Kansas native, nor rock star Steve Perry, who, during the playoffs, led an eighth-inning rendition of the Journey hit “Don’t Stop Believin’ †from his seat in Section 219 of AT&T Park. Who’s singing instead? The country singer Trisha Yearwood and the former “American Idol†winner Phillip Phillips will sing before Games 1 and 2 in Kansas City. The country group Little Big Town and Carlos Santana will perform before Games 3 and 4 in San Francisco. There’s hope that DiDonato could still perform if there’s a game 5 or 6: she did, after all, win the social-media campaign asking Royals fans who should sing: 33 percent exclaimed Joyce! Joyce! Lorde, whose song “Royals” is currently banned on many SF radio stations, placed third in the voting.
