‘God Bless America’ played on Louisville Slugger (Video)
By Mike Marteny
The Washington Nationals provided some interesting entertainment this afternoon before their game with the Chicago Cubs.
They got Glenn Donnellan, a violinist in the National Symphony Orchestra to perform the “Star Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America” before the game. It’s perfectly normal to have a violinist play these tunes at a ballgame, right?
Yes, but have you ever seen it done like this?
That’s right folks. He played a Louisville Slugger like a violin.
Donnellan crafted his so-called “batolin” in 2009 because he wanted a unique instrument that he could use for children’s concerts at part of a musical outreach program.
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Donnellan and his “batolin” went viral later in 2009 when a clip of him playing the Star Spangled Banner on the instrument showed up on YouTube.
That phenomenon prompted ESPN to do an E:60 piece on Donnellan and his unique musical instrument.
Louisville Slugger has agreed to let Donnellan call his instrument the “electric slugger”, even going to far as to give him a license for it.
Donnellan someday hopes to do a full tour of all 30 major league baseball stadiums, so here’s hoping you can see this at a ballpark near you!
While we are at it, why dont we just petition MLB to let him play at the All Star game?