‘A Lark’ Carried a Tune in All 26 Ballparks

Helen Hudson wasn’t much of a sports fan--until she sang the national anthem at every major-league ballpark this season.

Hudson was presented with 26 long-stemmed roses by Padres manager Greg Riddoch when she finished the “Star-Spangled Banner” before Monday night’s game at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium between the Padres and San Francisco Giants.

“I feel like Miss America,” she said.

Hudson, a New York singer-songwriter, didn’t know a balk from a grand slam when her husband, a baseball fanatic, suggested in April that she make the rounds of ballparks.

“It started out as a lark and turned into a challenge,” she said.

Hudson’s final stop proved to be her most challenging because she was suffering from the flu and didn’t know until shortly before game time if she would be able to sing. But a steady diet of cough drops all day paid off, allowing her to complete the 26-city circuit.

“You know, I’ll really miss it,” she said. “I always thoughts sports were kind of silly, but now I’m hooked.”

During her tour, Hudson developed an immediate fondness for stadiums such as Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago while learning to cope with treacherous sound systems in others.

The streak almost was broken at Shea Stadium in New York when Hudson, who arrived in culottes, was told by a stadium official to find a dress to wear or the anthem would be played on tape.

“It was just before the game and I ran out to the turnstiles and started asking women who were about my size if I could borrow a dress,” Hudson said. “A gal ran into the bathroom, pulled off her dress, gave it to me, and I gave her my culottes.”