CMA, AMA, ACM. And now MLB? Multiple music award winner and “American Idol” champ Carrie Underwood will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the first Rockies home game of 2007 World Series, Major League Baseball announced Thursday.
Underwood will take the spotlight just before the first pitch, which is set for 6:35 p.m. Saturday at Coors Field.
A bona fide country superstar, Underwood has sold more than 6 million albums, making her the most successful of all the “Idols.”
Her 2006 CD, “Some Hearts,” was the best-selling release by a female country singer in 2005 and 2006 and continues to chart. She has won top honors from the Country Music Association, American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music, Billboard and others.
Bet a non-starter. OK. So here’s the deal, U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo challenged former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to a bet Wednesday.
If the Colorado Rockies lose the World Series, Tancredo quits the race for the Republican nomination for president. Likewise, Tancredo’s challenge went, Romney would have to drop out should the Rockies beat the Red Sox.
Romney didn’t bite.
“Governor Romney is in the race to win the race,” reads a rather humorless statement issued by his campaign.
After the Rockies got trounced Wednesday, Tancredo’s campaign expressed some relief about Romney’s non-participation.
“Given last night’s performance, it’s a good thing you can’t make bets after the Series has started,” said campaign spokesman Alan Moore.
Tancredo’s proposed World Series bet comes a week after the Littleton Republican and immigration reformer challenged Romney to a trap shooting contest. “We thought it was appropriate since Mitt Romney claims to be such a good hunter,” Moore said.
Tancredo heads Monday to Iowa, where, among other activities, he plans to go pheasant hunting.
Buyers beware! Hawkers of tickets to the World Series at Coors Field this weekend will be waving their sheets of printed paper, some in color, many in black and white, hours before game time.
The age of electronic tickets has put the street buyer in a precarious position: whether to trust the tickets for which they’re about to hand over cash. These are not “hard” tickets but e-mailed printouts that can be printed over and over and sold to unsuspecting victims who are left to figure out what happened.
Remember: Scalping over the face value is illegal in Denver, and reselling tickets on
Coors Field property is prohibited.
There is no way to tell whether the printout you’re about to buy on the street is the sole copy or not. Each printed ticket’s barcode will work just once at the gate. That means additional copies won’t work once one is used.
If you get taken, the Rockies don’t want to know about it. Their contract is with the ticket buyer, not the end user, according to the team website.
Kurkjian booked for talk. Baseball analyst and author Tim Kurkjian will talk about his new book, “Is This a Great Game or What?” during a luncheon at the Oxford Hotel on Saturday. The event is sponsored by the Denver Forum and The Denver Post.
Kurkjian is probably best- known for delivering insights during “Baseball Tonight” and “SportsCenter” on the ESPN television network. He also writes for ESPN Magazine. He’ll be joined by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.
Tickets for the 1 p.m. luncheon, at the Oxford’s Sage Room, are $55. That includes an autographed copy of the book. For more information, go to .
Shot in dark scores. Chip Heldman circulated an e-mail Thursday to his co-workers at Sun Microsystems in Broomfield knowing full well his request was little more than a shot in the dark.
The e-mail, sent on behalf of his wife, called on any World Series ticket holders who were willing to sell a pair for a friend and her father who has an aggressive and rare form of brain cancer.
After 10 e-mails from people offering to start a fund to help pay for the tickets, an anonymous manger whom Heldman had never met donated two upper-deck tickets for Saturday.
“Lots of things are possible if you just try,” Heldman said. “If you put it out there, you see that people are actually pretty good.”
