National Anthem

The Hagerstown Suns is hosting its annual national anthem auditions from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 10, at Valley Mall, Valley Mall Road, Halfway. All performances must be a capella and only traditional renditions will be considered for selection. Registration opens at 9 a.m. at the food court.  For more information, call the Hagerstown Suns at 301-791-6266, or for advance registration go to at www.wayz.com .

The Hagerstown Suns will hold tryouts for the singing of the national anthem and for the position of public address announcer for the 2006 season at Valley Mall on Saturday, March 18. Registration for all participants will begin at 8:45 a.m. in the Valley Mall Food Court. The auditions begin at 10. The national anthem auditions are open to all participants 5 years of age or older. Approximately 50 winners will be selected from the competition to sing or play the national anthem before a Suns game this season.

The Hagerstown Suns will hold open tryouts for the singing of the national anthem before games during the upcoming season. Tryouts will be held at Wolf Furniture at Prime Outlets in Hagerstown on Saturday, March 15. Registration for all participants will begin at 1 p.m. and the auditions will begin at 2 p.m. This marks the first year the auditions will be held at Wolf Furniture and the Suns are expecting a large turnout, so make sure you...

With little red boots protecting his feet, 3-year-old Matthew Hamilton playfully stomped in a muddy puddle next to the dugout while waiting to be called onto the field. Matthew, years younger than the hundreds of other children already on the field to mark the beginning of the Halfway Little League season, wasn't there as a player - he was the there to sing the National Anthem. "I don't think he knows how to be nervous," said his mother, Karen. Matthew didn't sound nervous as he belted out the National Anthem on a drizzly morning at Martin L. "Marty" Snook Memorial Park.

marlob@herald-mail.com CLEAR SPRING - What started out as a shot in the dark a year ago turned into the gig of a lifetime for four Clear Spring-area young men who sang the national anthem before more than 20,000 people at the May 27 Orioles-Anaheim Angels baseball game. "That was our biggest audience ever - by about 19,000 or so," said Unknown Harmony first tenor Gerad Haupt, a psychology major at Messiah College. Haupt said it's his job to sing the "ridiculously high notes" needed in the group's performances.

Deborah Lopez, general music teacher at Bester Elementary School, gave students a challenge to learn the words of our national anthem. One hundred fifty-six Bester Elementary first- through fifth-grade students accepted that challenge and successfully learned the words to the "The Star-Spangled Banner. " During music class, students learned the history behind the writing of the song, the meaning of the words and appropriate etiquette when hearing and singing it. Each student who successfully learned the words to the national anthem received a red or blue patriotic wrist band.

Old Forge Elementary first-grader Danielle Matthews waves a United States flag and sings the national anthem with other students Friday in an outdoor tribute to the flag. Students dressed in red, white, and blue colors in keeping with the theme of the day.

Suns to hold tryouts for national anthem Do you want to sing for the Suns? The Hagerstown Suns will hold open tryouts for the singing of the national anthem at Valley Mall in Halfway on Saturday, April 5. Registration for all participants will begin at 9 a.m. in the Valley Mall food court, and the auditions will begin at 10 a.m. The auditions, which are sponsored by the Hagerstown Suns and WAYZ 104.7 FM, are open to those...

On July 6, the 167th Airlift Wing Base Honor Guard Colors Team of the West Virginia Air National Guard in Martinsburg, W.Va., presented the colors for the national anthem before the game between the Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The team was also introduced to NASA Air Force Lt. Col. Astronaut Terry W. Virts, who threw out the first pitch.

Tenor Daniel Rodriguez, known as "The Singing Policeman," sang at The Maryland Theatre's Live on Stage series Monday. The event was pesented by the Hagerstown Community Concert Association. Rodriguez, a New York Police Department officer, became one of the department's official singers. History intervened for the now-retired officer on Sept. 11, 2001. His stirring a capella performances of "God Bless America" and the national anthem became transcendent statements of solidarity, determination and hope that galvanized his fellow New Yorkers and Americans.

National Little League will hold tryouts and registration Saturday and Sunday. Registration will be held at the National Little League press box, 728 Frederick St., behind the city's Potterfield Pool. Registration and tryouts: Saturday, 10:30 a.m. - 9- and 10-year-olds    Saturday, noon - 11- and 12-year-olds Sunday - 12:30 p.m. -   9- to 12-year-olds On Saturday, March 16, tryouts will be held  for all 7-year-olds who want to play minor league and 8- to 11-year- olds who played minor league last year.

Student advances in hoop shoot contest Jackson Carrazco, a fourth-grader at Hickory Elementary School, began his journey in the Elks Hoop Shoot when he represented Hickory Elementary School Jan. 12 at Williamsport High School, where he claimed first place against other Washington County students. Jackson then advanced to the next round of the basketball shooting contest, competing against students from Garrett, Allegany and Frederick counties, where he made 22 out of 25 free throws and won the district title.

A smile crept across Adam LaRoche's face while he rounded the bases Tuesday night after hitting his career-high 33rd homer to become the third Nationals player with 100 RBIs in a season, another celebratory moment for NL East champion Washington during a 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. When the Nationals Park gates opened, early-arriving fans in the crowd of 33,546 were treated to a video montage of alcohol-spraying and general mirth-making from a night earlier, when the home team clinched its first division title since moving from Montreal in 2005.

“You know, this Romney running for president on the Republican side, he brags about how many jobs he's saved, his Bain Capital, but he doesn't tell you how many jobs he got rid of and fired, and pulled the money out from these factories for his ... buddies, and laid the people off and bankrupted the company. He didn't tell you that. ... But he lost more than he won.” - Hagerstown “What a wonderful column in this morning's paper by Tom Firey, talking about the stadium.

The Hagerstown Suns is hosting its annual national anthem auditions from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 10, at Valley Mall, Valley Mall Road, Halfway. All performances must be a capella and only traditional renditions will be considered for selection. Registration opens at 9 a.m. at the food court.  For more information, call the Hagerstown Suns at 301-791-6266, or for advance registration go to at www.wayz.com .

At a recent basketball game, I noticed a young couple whispering back and forth to each other during the national anthem. It seemed rather odd to not be paying respect during this solemn time. Perhaps they hadn't been taught to show reverence when the "Star Spangled Banner" is played. Most people were standing at attention, right hand over heart. Unfortunately, the whisperers were standing directly between the flag and me. It was distracting and troublesome. Have we lost our sense of decorum?

It was quite a weekend in Hancock.   Young Lily Wolford's dream of hosting the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Hancock came true with all the trimmings.   A committee chaired by the 16-year-old began meeting a year ago, and the folks who attended the events in Hancock this past weekend were in agreement that the whole series of events was impressive, informative and fun, Highlights were the opening evening at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, including a reading of the text of a letter written on Jan. 9, 1862, by the Rev. David Lee, rector of St. Thomas' when the battle took place.

They stood straight, 58 right hands covering their hearts, some with tears in their eyes as they listened to a high school choir sing the national anthem, now, finally, their national anthem, too.  It was the biggest class of naturalized citizens in the federal courthouse in memory in Martinsburg. They all took the oath that pledges to "absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate.... "  They came by choice, some out of desperation, some seeking opportunity, others to join family members already here, and others just longing to be free.

 On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,  Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,  What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,  As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Does this stanza sound familiar? What if you replaced the first part of line one with "O say can you see?" Can you sing the rest of the verse with the words at the top of this column? Go ahead, try it, if only in your mind.

Boonesborough Days Crafts, food, trolley rides and demonstrations of 18th- and 19th-century crafts. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Shafer Park, off Potomac Street, Boonsboro. Call Boonsboro Historical Society at 301-432-5889 or 301-432-7030. Fun horse show Saddles 'n Spurs 4-H fall fun show with pleasure, equitation, trail, over-fences, individual and pairs races and more. 9 a.m. Saturday. Washington County Agricultural Education Center, 7313 Sharpsburg Pike, south of Hagerstown.