{"id":646828,"date":"2026-03-27T16:12:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T16:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/646828\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T16:12:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T16:12:29","slug":"national-anthem-is-butchered-ahead-of-new-york-mets-opening-game-as-broadway-icon-suffers-humiliating-blunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/646828\/","title":{"rendered":"National anthem is butchered ahead of New York Mets opening game as Broadway icon suffers humiliating blunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Mets<\/a> fans were left stunned on Thursday when the national anthem was butchered ahead of the team’s opening game of the season against the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Christopher Jackson, the Broadway performer best known for originating the role of George Washington in the hit musical Hamilton, was given the honor of performing the Star-Spangled Banner on Opening Day at Citi Field.<\/p>\n

However, despite his experience playing one of the most iconic figures in American history, Jackson, 50, unbelievably mixed up the lyrics to the US national anthem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He seemed to confuse the line ‘What so proudly we hail’ in the first verse with ‘Were so gallantly streaming’ from later in the song.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Jackson didn’t miss a beat and continued through the remainder of the anthem without a hiccup, his error did not go unmissed by fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many Mets fans were left horrified by the blunder with some even going as far as to claim that it was an ‘omen’ for their team’s coming season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"New <\/p>\n

New York Mets fans were left stunned on Thursday when the national anthem was butchered<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Mets opened their 2026 MLB season against the Pittsburgh Pirates a Citi Field\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Chris Jackson just majorly messed up our great National Anthem before the first pitch of Pirates\/Mets,’ one baseball fan fumed on social media. ‘A national disgrace! Lock him up!’<\/p>\n

‘Alexander Hamilton is rolling in his grave over his anthem at the Mets game,’ another quipped.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Tell Christopher Jackson he f***ed up the National Anthem and he f***ing sucks,’ a particularly furious Mets fan posted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Opening Day! Let\u2019s go Mets! The guy singing the national anthem got the lyrics wrong. Can only go up from here,’ a fourth social media user joked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Second National Anthem of the season and we\u2019ve already got botched lyrics. Not surprised the Mets couldn\u2019t get a guy to do what they paid him to do,’ one said.<\/p>\n

‘Forgetting the words of the National Anthem. Mets gonna Met,’ another shared, seemingly referring to the team’s past records.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jackson made his Broadway debut\u00a0in 1997 as an ensemble member in the original Broadway cast of Disney’s The Lion King.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He has gone on to star in multiple high-profile roles on both screen and stage, including HBO’s ‘And Just Like That,’ Disney’s ‘Moana,’ and ‘In the Heights.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Fortunatelt <\/p>\n

Fortunatelt the blunder wasn’t an omen for the Mets as Pirates’ Paul Skenes was pulled<\/p>\n

He\u00a0also performed the national anthem at a New York Knicks game last week. Yet, on that occasion he managed to make it through the Star-Spangled Banner without error and received a warm round of applause from the crowd inside Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Jackson, his blunder did not appear to curse the Mets as the Pirates’ pitching prodigy Paul Skenes didn’t make it out of the first inning.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

He lasted only 37 pitches into his opening day start, recording two outs as well as conceding five runs and hitting Francisco Alvarez with a pitch.<\/p>\n

It prompted manager Don Kelly to remove the 23-year-old out of the game, leaving Skenes looking shellshocked after the lonely walk back to the dugout.<\/p>\n

The reaction to the national anthem at Citi Field came as a stark contrast to the reception that the rendition before their local rivals the New York Yankees’ opening gane received on Wednesday evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Yankees were not playing in the Bronx, instead traveling to the San Francisco Giants<\/a>\u00a0to raise the curtain on the new MLB season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Retired US serviceman Generald Wilson was given the honor of singing the first national anthem of the 2026 season at Oracle Park.<\/p>\n

\"Retired <\/p>\n

Retired US serviceman Generald Wilson performed the anthem ahead of Yankees-Giants\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A drone pyrotechnic smoke display forms the American flag during the national anthem\u00a0<\/p>\n

His performance drew praise from supporters, one of whom asked: ‘Was that the greatest national anthem of all time?’<\/p>\n

Another called it the ‘best anthem in years,’ adding that the rendition gave them ‘goosebumps,’ while one fan wrote on social media: ‘Straight chills. Best way to start the 2026 season!’<\/p>\n

The performance ended with a military flyover and included a drone pyrotechnic show that saw the American flag appear in the sky above Oracle Park.<\/p>\n

Wilson’s performance was shown on Netflix as the streaming giant broadcast its first ever live Major League Baseball game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Mets fans were left stunned on Thursday when the national anthem was butchered ahead of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,445,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,302],"class_list":["post-646828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-mets","tag-baseball","tag-dailymail","tag-mets","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-mets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkmets","tag-sport"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116302026722069594","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}