Barstool can't decide if Martha Reeves' anthem was a disaster or a gift

Every league gets a viral anthem moment eventually, but the Women's Pro Baseball League got theirs on opening weekend. Martha Reeves, backed by two other singers in fringed western outfits, took the mic before the league's inaugural game and delivered a rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner that immediately started making the rounds for all the wrong reasons.

Barstool Sports

@barstoolsports

You’ve never heard an Anthem quite like this one

The keys didn't match, the timing fell apart, and cameras kept cutting to players and fans in the stands trying not to laugh. It's the kind of clip that gets clipped and reclipped a hundred times over a weekend, and that's exactly what happened — one version alone reportedly pulled in over 9 million views on X.

That's where the discourse split. One side of the timeline went straight for the age angle, with @NjTank99 firing off that Reeves "is now 85 and has no business singing". It's the reaction you'd expect from a rough anthem — mock first, ask questions later.

Frank Fleming

@NjTank99

This anthem Martha Reeves. She was once a big time MoTown singer. She is now 85 and has no business singing. t.co/GvawIlWyB3

But the questions came fast, and the answer humbled a chunk of the internet. Martha Reeves isn't some random open-mic act — she's the voice behind Martha and the Vandellas, one of Motown's defining acts of the 1960s. "Dancing in the Street," "Heat Wave," "Nowhere to Run," "Jimmy Mack" — that's her catalog, and it's foundational stuff for anyone who cares about American pop music. She signed with Motown back in 1963 and was still fronting the Vandellas at Detroit's Cobo Hall nearly a decade later before going solo.

Barstool's own account flipped the framing once that context landed, posting that the "viral anthem singer" was "actually a legend". It's the same pivot the replies made in real time — from dunking on a shaky performance to realizing you were dunking on a woman who helped invent the sound Motown is famous for.

Barstool Sports

@barstoolsports

Viral Anthem Singer Martha Reeves is actually a legend t.co/ooikJRPf46

None of that erases how rough the anthem sounded, and it's not going to stop the clip from getting compared to Fergie's infamous 2018 NBA All-Star Game version. But it does complicate the pile-on. An 85-year-old icon taking the mic at a brand-new women's pro league's first-ever game is a bigger, better story than a bad key change — and it's the kind of moment that outlives the ratio.