Colbie Caillat

There are a lot of cool perks that come with my job...not the least of which is getting paid to watch baseball. That of course is not the only perk, there are also things like getting to meet famous entertainers. That part is okay too.

I remember a few years ago "Hootie and the Blowfish" were performing the national anthem at PETCO Park and I got to meet Darius Rucker. Well not so much meet, but I did ask him if we could take a picture together.

That day was nothing like today...today was way cooler.

For the Padres home opener this afternoon they got two-time Grammy Award winning singer Colbie Caillat to sing the national anthem with her guitarist. For the record the guitarist didn't sing...but Colbie did, and she sang the crap out of the Star Spangled Banner. It was easily one of the best performances I have ever heard, and I have heard a lot. It wasn't good like Whitney Houston's 1990 Super Bowl National Anthem, it was good in a whole other way.

She sang it like Colbie Caillat would sing it, but still stayed true to the song. I don't even know if that makes sense. All I know is that I hate when people sing their own "rendition" of the Nation Anthem, because that's the one song I think you should sing as it was written. Yet somehow Colbie managed to put her spin on it without pissing me off.

Apparently I wasn't the only one moved by it because the Padres promptly went out and scored the most runs in the history of PETCO Park after Colbie's performance, beating the Braves 17-2 to cap a wild first day at the ballpark.

Hopefully she'll sing again Wednesday.