Last night, lifelong Seattle Mariners fan Benjamin Gibbard got to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” at T-Mobile Park before the start of the Mariners' home opener against the Boston Red Sox. The Death Cab for Cutie frontman stood right in front of home plate to sing the national anthem. Watch Gibbard's display below, which preceded a tough defeat for the home side.
Gibbard has appeared at Mariners games several times: Death Cab for Cutie played covers of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and “Centerfield” on Opening Day in 2010, and Gibbard returned to perform “Centerfield” again, this the solo time. , in 2020 for a particularly grim Pandemic Inception Day. He also threw out the first pitch in several games.
Gibbard's love of baseball is not one-sided. When the Mariners traded the legendary Ichiro Suzuki to the New York Yankees in 2012, he wrote a song to honor the 10-time MLB All-Star: “Ichiro's Theme.” The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum subsequently displayed Gibbard's handwritten song lyrics in its archives.
If all this talk of sweet songs and live performances has you wondering when you can see Gibbard next, then you're in double luck: The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie are expanding their co-headlining tour this year, and he's choosing to repeat the April.
Read “The Death Cab/Postal Service Tour Is Peak Millennial Nostalgia, in the Best Way” on the pitch.
