I had no idea what to expect for today. This morning on the news I heard something about 2,800 to 3,000 people in a mention about the 7th inning stretch competition. I walked over to the ballpark all decked out in Cubs gear, after all this was about being a Cubs fan not just a singing competition. I got there checked in and followed the instructions out to the terrace reserved seating. I was surprised to see about 100 people already sitting there and how people were dressed. Many just had "regular" clothes on. There were a few people that went all out to look like Harry Caray or had Cubs uniform on. These were the people serious about winning. People were separated in to 22 groups, I was given group number 20 when i signed in. I found my group and sat down. After a few minutes in which i read and signed my release, an announcer got up, told us that he was going to start calling group numbers and we were going to be taken by group to different parts of the ballpark for our audition. Being in group 20, we were one of the last groups to be called. Eight of us walked up the stairs and followed our leader to the box suites. He directed us into one of the boxes and said it was up to us to decide what order we would go to sing. Then he left. We quickly decided on alphabetical and started to chat. One by one we were taken away to another suite. I was the fifth person to go. I followed the "leader" to another suite. They weren't quite ready for me, so i seized the opportunity to find out a few more details about the number of people auditioning. Auditioning started at 8:00 this morning and will go until 5:00, same as yesterday. He said the morning was really busy but the number of people showing up diminished as the day went on, lots of no shows. He was expecting the same today, especially because of the weather. He guessed that half of the 2,800 to 3,000 that were invited to the auditions would actually show up. Then the door opened... it was my turn. I walked into the suite. It was set-up with a large hanging banner with the 7th inning stretch competition logo written on it and a microphone a couple feet in front of it. I was told to stand by the microphone. Once i did i looked up to see a video camera and three people sitting behind it. I smiled and we exchanged hellos. One of them said, "I'm going to ask you a question, please take less than a minute to respond and then start singing. Any questions before we begin?" The question was something like why should you be chosen to sing the 7th inning stretch. I gave a short and cheesy response. I raised my eyebrows, smiled, then belted out in a loud alto voice "take me out to the ball game..." well you know how the rest of it goes. When i finished they smiled and said thanks you're all done. I picked up my camera and purse and left. That was it. My audition. Now I wait. I found out from here they will chose 50 people to put on-line for voting. The voting will be narrowed down to 10 for the final audition in August. Then back 0n-line for voting. One person will be chosen to sing on September 22. Stay turned...
