The only remaining questions about the San Diego Padres‘ mishandling of the National Anthem sung by the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus at a home game last Saturday night have been directed at the handling of the situation in the minutes during and after the Anthem.
After I chatted with Scott and BR on The Mighty 1090, a Padres spokesperson reached out to clear up a couple questions.
Question #1: Why did no one stop the National Anthem when they realized it was incorrect?
The Padres told Outsports that they quickly realized the correct audio file was not loaded, so they had no good audio to broadcast in the stadium. The microphones also were not live, so they couldn't go to a live performance. I'm not sure why they couldn't have stopped it all and turned on the microphones, but in a split-second decision to fix a disaster none of them had seen before, they made the choice to stick with the incorrect recording.
Question #2: Why not have the Chorus stick around and perform the Anthem during the seventh inning stretch?
The Padres told Outsports that team management immediately began discussing this option in the first inning, but many of the Chorus members had left the stadium (understandable given what had just happened). It took the team a while to get hold of Chorus executive director Bob Lehman, who had already left the facility.
No doubt the team has learned some valuable lessons through all of this and will have a better way to handle it if it somehow happens again. It's still odd that they didn't acknowledge the mistake over the loudspeaker during the game, but again, another lesson learned.
