This Londoner sang O Canada for the Blue Jays at the 1992 World Series
CBC
It's a moment Londoner John P. Allen will never forget—a flashback to 1992, when Toronto Blue Jays fever was also sweeping across the nation.
The stakes were high. The Jays faced the Atlanta Braves on October 22, 1992, in Game 5 of the World Series.
That's when Allen stepped up to the microphone in the SkyDome and sang the national anthem with his bandmates in the popular country act, Prairie Oyster.
While the Blue Jays would lose that game, they'd go on to take the World Series in Game 6.
Now, as the Toronto Blue Jays head back to the World Series for the first time since 1993, Allen is remembering performing on the big day.
He spoke with CBC Afternoon Drive host Matt Allen to talk about the experience.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Matt Allen: Take us back to that moment. You step up to sing the national anthem. What's going through your head?
John P. Allen: Well, Prairie Oyster was at the height of our career, I guess you could say. We were Canada's top country and western band in the '80s and '90s. We were approached by the Commissioner's Office in New York about coming and singing at one of the games. So we got Game 5. Ed Sprague Jr. hit a home run in Game 2 to win the game. So, we knew there would be a game 5. It was really wonderful. I was probably the biggest sports fan in the band, but everybody really enjoyed it.
MA: Take us there. What was it like being front row, first of all, on the field, but then for the game itself to get to see all of that?
JA: It was amazing. We we got to sit in the dugout till after we got in our pass into the stadium and I sat with the Blue Jays in the dugout.
It was a real Canadian moment. We rehearsed for a whole day beforehand because we knew the reverberation and feedback might throw us off. But we managed to get through it, and it was really something. It was unbelievable. My feet were hardly touching the ground.
MA: Now you were a member of the Prairie Oysters. You've had so much success with them, six Juno Awards. Could you tell us about playing in that band?
JA: Well, it was a great experience. It was the culmination of my career. I'd done a lot of other things professionally in Toronto as well, and I got to travel all over the world with Prairie Oyster and represent Canada at all kinds of events. We were good friends.
A young man has been charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm after a fire at a frat party near Western University that injured five sorority sisters, including two seriously, late Tuesday night.
The massive deal to combine one of Hollywood's oldest studios with a streaming giant hasn't even been approved yet, but it's already riling multiple related industries and politicians concerned about monopolies and media concentration.
Mi'kmaq chiefs and a former Nova Scotia justice minister are criticizing the provincial government for directing police to crack down on illegal cannabis, saying the order undermines relations with Indigenous Peoples.
For years, there has been “glaring inequity” in the way the province has allocated the millions of dollars in its county roads budget, according to Department of Transportation Minister Chuck Chiasson.
Six months after passing a law aimed at making it easier for new grocery stores to open, Manitoba's premier says lower grocery bills could be on the horizon.
Timothy Smith was acting in self-defence when he punched Landon Waddell, and shouldn't be found guilty of manslaughter, his lawyer says.
Thoroughbred horse racing at Vancouver’s Hastings Racecourse is ending after more than a century, with the operator announcing Friday it will no longer run a racing season at the historic facility.
A memorial to remember lives lost to gender-based violence was held in Charlottetown Friday, ahead of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, which is marked annually on Dec. 6.
A Calgary dentist who defrauded five insurance companies over a decade should spend up to three years in prison, the prosecution argued Friday.
B.C. Conservation Officer Service says it has called off its search for a bear responsible for an attack on a group of school children in Bella Coola, B.C. on Nov. 20.
The union president called it a rally for solidarity as Iqaluit Housing Authority employees gathered Friday while negotiations are ongoing between the Nunavut Employees Union and the employer.
The federal government is stoking Quebec separatism by walking back its climate commitments — including in its recent deal with Alberta — Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault says.
Four more Alberta MLAs are facing recall petitions organized by their constituents, including the first NDP representative to be caught in the province's ongoing wave of recall efforts.