Photo by Ben Harmon

Of all his achievements as a cantor, administrator and neuropsychologist, Dr. Scott M. Sokol, dean of the Jewish Music Institute and director of the Cantor-Educator Program, says his friends and family are most excited about his singing the national anthem at Fenway Park during the 2004 historic World Championship season.

Due to a rain delay directly after his performance and then a cancellation, Sokol sang the anthem not once, but twice, both times at late-April games against Tampa Bay. Donning his Hebrew Red Sox cap, he showed up early each time—for a recording session.

The biggest surprise of the experience, Sokol says, was that he recorded the song ahead of time and lip-synched during the actual performances. He was told that the acoustics sound better and it's "more natural" this way.

During the live performance, "You sing full voice, but your mike is dead," he says.

Each time, Sokol received VIP treatment: He was given good tickets to the game; a "special rep" escorted him onto the field and instructed him where to stand; his name and information were flashed before the crowd; he witnessed the "best view in the whole stadium" from the sound and video studio in a booth behind home plate; and perhaps the best perk of all—he received a parking pass to the players' lot.

"In order to get in you have to go through a police barricade. The second time the officer joked with me, made me sing the anthem before I could get into the lot," he says.

Sokol's Fenway appearances were made possible by Dr. Charles Steinberg, vice president of Public Affairs for the Red Sox, who is a member of Congregation Kehillath Israel, where Sokol is hazzan. Last year the congregation's rabbi, William Hamilton, had the honor of throwing out the first pitch. But because another vocalist had been scheduled to sing the anthem at that game, Sokol had to wait until this season for his turn, and what a season it turned out to be!

With 200 members of his congregation in attendance to cheer him on, Sokol, in his own way, contributed to reversing the curse. "They won all the games I sang in," he says.

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