When two high schools were getting ready to play for the Central Section softball championship in Fresno California on Friday, the announcer surprised the crowd when he said there wouldn't be a national anthem prior to the game.
When several games are played in a row, the anthem is traditionally only played before the first game of the day.
But the people attending the game at Fresno State's Margie Wright Diamond weren't having that and began booing.
That's when several people in the crowd decided to take matters into their own hand, and stood up beginning to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" anyway, performing the national anthem without instrumentals backing them.
The a cappella rendition had many in the crowd standing with hands over their hearts and their hats removed. Players stopped their warm-ups and turned to face the American flag beyond the center-field wall.
Once the song was finished, the crowd burst into applause and the ballgame went on.
Event coordinator, Bob Kayajanian, of the Central Section told the Fresno Bee that not playing the anthem was a mistake on his part.
"The national protocol is the first game of the session you have the national anthem," he said. "The games after that are just played. We got caught (off-guard). Both the teams turned to face the field and they all started singing the national anthem. They started to play some music and the people took that as the national anthem and they all started singing, which I think is obviously a wonderful thing to show off their patriotism.
"We try to follow with what normally gets done. It’s all a learning experience for everyone and (going forward) we’re playing the national anthem at every game."
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