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The Associated Press
NEW YORK — You don't need a bat and a ball to strike out in baseball.
On Wednesday, most of the hundreds of people who auditioned to sing the national anthem for the Mets at Shea Stadium this season never reached the outfield fence.
Most didn't even sing the notoriously difficult "Star Spangled Banner"; contestants were allowed to choose other songs.
"Have you sung outside the shower before?" entertainer Michael Amante, one of the judges, asked a young woman who offered a demure and shaky "America the Beautiful."
The judges were choosing 10 singers who will go to the Mets' stadium in Queens in a few weeks for a second audition — this one from second base and singing the actual anthem with its very high notes. Five winners will be picked to sing it before home games at Shea.
The Mets usually have professionals performing the anthem, but team organizers say they launched the publicity stunt to give fans a chance to be part of the game.
The open auditions were held for the second year at the midtown Manhattan studios of SportsNet New York (SNY), the year-round television home of the Mets where fans began lining up the night before for the 11 a.m. call.
Amante, a singer, was one of three judges, joining Gary Apple, anchor of SNY's SportsNite, and Lolita Lopez, weekend sports anchor for the CW11 cable channel.
With his Mets sweatshirt and rich booming voice, 56-year-old Leonard Bagarozzo, a retired postal worker from New Jersey, sang "Amazing Grace."
Bagarozzo hit it off with Amante; the two of them bantered a bit in Italian with Amante finally saying, "Grazie tante" — Italian for "Thank you very much."
That last phrase, in English, was often heard after only the first few bars of a contestant's song. It was the signal to — as they say in New York — fugheddaboudit.
Still, Bagarozzo walked away with a big smile and two free tickets for a home game, given to the first 100 people who signed up to audition.
"I've always wanted to sing the anthem at a Mets game. It's been my dream," he said.
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