Special privileges: LDS Church, Dodgers share benefits

On its Web site, Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers say the LDS Church "draws the largest crowd to the stadium every season!" This season's date is Thursday, Aug. 6, in a game against the Atlanta Braves.

Sonja Eddings Brown, a public affairs representative for the Mormon church in Southern California, said the church is the largest single group that participates with the Dodgers. That means some special perks including, this year, a nationwide search for an LDS member to sing the national anthem prior to the game. Brown formed LDS Open Auditions for a competition whose winner will step up the microphone on "Mormon Night" and sing to an expected-to-be-packed stadium.

"I just thought it would be a great idea this year to throw it open to anyone in the church who had ever had a dream of singing the national anthem in a big ballpark," she said of her brain child during auditions for about 50 finalists in the church's Conference Center Theater in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, July 22. About 30 other finalists auditioned in Los Angeles during the same week.

That means the national anthem in Dodger stadium may be sung by someone from Tennessee or Wisconsin. Though most of the finalists — whittled down from more than 500 entries — hail from California or Utah, they represented a total of 12 states from Oregon to New Jersey.

See the full story on ldschurchnews.com.