KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Major League Baseball announced on Wednesday the lineup for the ceremonial and off-field activities that will take place prior to and during Game 2 of the World Series at Kauffman Stadium.
Ceremonial first pitch
The ceremonial first pitch will be thrown out by three Medal of Honor recipients. The recipients, Don Ballard, Charles Hagemeister and Roger Donlon, are all veterans of the Vietnam War.
Ballard is a Marine Corps Retired Colonel and native of Kansas City, Mo, and received the Medal of Honor for his selfless attempt to protect his fellow Marines by throwing himself upon a lethal explosive device. Thankfully, the device failed to detonate, and he resumed his efforts, while under fire from enemy forces, in assisting injured comrades.
Hagemeister is an Army Retired Lieutenant Colonel who received the United States military’s highest decoration for his actions during the Vietnam War, including repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire in order to aid his fellow soldiers. Hagemeister threw the ceremonial first pitch before Game 6 of the 2014 World Series.
Donlon is an Army Retired Colonel who was the first recipient of the Medal of Honor from the Vietnam War, and the first member of the U.S. Army Special Forces so honored. As the commanding officer of a Special Forces Detachment, Donlon successfully led the defense, at direct personal risk, of a U.S. military installation in Nam Dong against hostile and outnumbered attack by hostile forces.
17-year-old Courtney Calhoun will deliver the first ball to the mound with Royals Hall of Famer Mike Sweeney. Calhoun is a senior at William Chrisman High School in Independence and a member member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Kansas City.
The National Anthem
Multi-platinum selling country singer and songwriter Sara Evans will perform the National Anthem prior to Game 2. Evans has been called “one of the most compelling vocalists of her generation.” The Missouri native is best known for hits, including “Suds In The Bucket, “A Real Fine Place To Start,” “Born To Fly,” “A Little Bit Stronger,” and “No Place That Far.”
Reliever of the year award recipients announced
The Hartford will be presenting the Reliever of the Year Awards Wednesday. The American and National League Reliever of the Year Awards are named after MLB greats Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman, who will participate in the press conference in addition to the winners and Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. The winners will be presented with their awards in an on-field ceremony during pregame by Rivera, Hoffman and Chief Baseball Officer Joe Torre.
Sharon Robinson and former Royals to help make donation
Sharon Robinson and six former Royals have joined forces with MLB and the Royals to donate a Starlight Fund Center. The Starlight Fun Center unit is equipped with the latest gaming system that rolls bedside in hospitals to provide distractive entertainment and healing power of play to pediatric patients. For children facing surgery, enduring long outpatient treatments or fighting loneliness after hospital visiting hours have ended, Starlight Fun Center units provide a comforting break and fun distraction.
Breaking Barriers grand prize winner recognized
Kayla Savory, a ninth-grader from Riverbank Cali., will be recognized as one of two grand prize winners of the 2015 Breaking Barriers Essay Contest. Savory is one of the 16,000 people who submitted essays. Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life is an educational and essay writing-based program, developed by Major League Baseball, Sharon Robinson and Scholastic, designed to educate students in grades four through nine about Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson. The students learn and write about Jackie’s life values and how they can apply them to overcoming obstacles or barriers in their own lives.
“God Bless America”
United States Air Force Airman First Class Michelle Doolittle will sing “God Bless America” before the bottom of the seventh inning during Game 2 of the World Series.
Budweiser Our Hero Seats
Colonel Todd Wood will be sitting the Budweiser Our Hero Seats during Game 2. Colonel Wood has served in the United States Army for twenty-nine years and specializes in the infantry. Colonel Wood has been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq a total of four times and has received three Bronze Stars for combat operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, and a Purple Heart for wounds received by an IED blast in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He is also a two-time recipient of the Legion of Merit Award for senior leadership positions.
Buck O’Neil Legacy Seat
Father of 7-year-old Noah Wilson, Scott Wilson, will be sitting in the Buck O’Neil Legacy seat Wednesday night. Noah passed away earlier this year, but they decided to continue Noah’s Bandage Project, a non-profit organization that collects boxes of fun bandages for children. The project has since been able to collect more than 24,000 boxes and raise more than $60,000 for medical grants to support pediatric cancer research since its start.
