Bizarre Anthem Performance at Baseball Game Goes Viral: ‘The Flag Looked Embarrassed’

(Photo Credit: WPBL)

From “Dancing in the Streets” to “Covering your ears and cringing in the bleachers.”

The Women’s Pro Baseball League got a bunch of free press on Saturday when its debut game was overshadowed by an absolutely dreadful rendition of the National Anthem performed by Martha Reeves and two other women.

Trying to explain the very pitchy performance is next to impossible; you have to listen to it to believe how off-the-rails it went. Keep an ear out for the screeching “Rockets red glare / the bombs bursting in air” moment midway through, though. Then again, it would be impossible to miss — if you can listen for that long.

The 85-year-old Reeves was the lead singer of Martha and the Vandellas back in the ’60s and performed hits like “Dancing in the Streets” and “Nowhere to Run”… but unfortunately for Reeves, she could not run away from the skewering she got on social media.

For starters, here’s the initial clip, which has been viewed more than 9.5 million times since Saturday:

And now for the reviews.

One user said the “off-key mess” was so bad it “made the flag look embarrassed.”

TK

Another said they would’ve been better off just putting a boombox in front of the microphone.

And some users couldn’t listen for more than 2 seconds before ditching the tune.

While another user said this was Exhibit A when it came to arguing against playing The Star Spangled Banner before games.

“It should be illegal to sing the National Anthem this bad,” another user wrote.

And it kept going from there…

While a few X users said Reeves had leapfrogged other all-time terrible National Anthem renditions from Roseanne Barr and Carl Lewis to become the new “standard” by which bad performances are measured.

“Roseanne Barr is off the hook!” one user quipped.

The crowd at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois was a bit easier going, but the camera still caught some fans clearly uncomfortable with what they were hearing; the camera also caught one player who appeared to stifle a smirk at one point after a missed note.

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