BY KRISTA RAMSEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
And they say the pressure is on Mark McGwire.
The St. Louis first baseman, who is chasing Roger Maris' home run record, is bound to get at least a couple at-bats when the Cardinals play the Reds here this week, but Glenn Parrish of North Avondale will get a single trip to home plate.
Mr. McGwire hit the majors at 22. Mr. Parrish waited years for the phone call that would summon him to The Show.
And, while Mark McGwire has the rest of the season to capture or better the record, Thursday night is Glenn Parrish's one and only shot at Cinergy Field fame.
When he takes a deep breath, clears his throat and steps up to the microphone to sing the national anthem, Mr. Parrish will realize a dream he has chased since boyhood.
"Ever thought of doing this for the Reds or the Bengals?" asked a friend admiringly after hearing Mr. Parrish sing at a Winton Woods High School basketball game.
"All my life," Glenn Parrish answered sincerely.
But even the extremely optimistic baritone never thought it might be the night a new home run record was set -- perhaps in front of a capacity, 53,000-fan crowd.
Started with a joke
Glenn Parrish's quest for the anthem started modestly four years ago, when a garbled version of the song crackled over the public address system at a Seven Hills Upper School basketball game he was attending. "That's a sorry tape," Mr. Parrish kidded. "If you can do better. . .," the announcer said. Mr. Parrish stepped up to the microphone.
So began a three-year gig at Seven Hills -- and an opportunistic habit of carrying the words to the anthem in his wallet. Just in case.
Indeed, fate seemed determined to pair the man to the song. Mr. Parrish was refereeing a soccer game when a tape of the anthem wouldn't play. "I went over and said, "Just give (the microphone) to me,' " he remembers with a smile. The ref sang, to excellent reviews. Last year his rendition brought the house down at the Winton Woods basketball game.
Still, his biggest performance eluded him.
Had been turned down
For three years, he had written to the Reds to offer his services, only to be turned down by a polite refusal letter. This year, he walked into the Reds' front office with a tape. "They wrote back and said they had enough people," he remembered. "I just said, "Oh well, I'll try again next year.' "
Then, somehow, as anthem scheduler Barb McManis looked at her calendar, several openings appeared. She tried her usual recruitment efforts -- finding a representative from a company buying group tickets, a celebrity passing through town, a suggestion from her staff.
Glenn Parrish's name came up. She invited him to audition in an empty Cinergy Field. He sang his heart out -- the Goodyear blimp mysteriously passing overhead just as he began -- and the job was his.
Originally, Ms. McManis thought Mr. Parrish would sing Friday, for the Arizona Diamondbacks. But after hearing him -- "a great voice, traditional but unique style" -- she offered him Thursday instead.
It took a minute to sink in. "I said, "St. Louis? Mark McGwire?' " he remembered with a laugh. "Then I said, "What time?' "
After a lifetime of singing in church, after miles of belting out the national anthem alone in his car, after years of waiting for the Reds to call, Glenn Parrish is finally going to run onto the field Thursday night.
He will be surrounded by his wife, Donna, four children and several dozen friends (one of whom wondered if he could squeeze in a verse of "Happy Birthday" for his son).
He said he will sing the anthem "reverently."
"All I know is when I stand up there, and they say, "Glenn Parrish from North Avondale,' and the people I love are there, I'll just look up and say, "OK, Lord,' and then I'll hit it."
Krista Ramsey's column appears on Saturdays. Write her at the Enquirer, 312 Elm St. Cincinnati 45202.
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