Baseball fans stunned as Ronald McDonald sings U.S. anthem

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You never know what you might see when attending a minor-league baseball game.

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While some franchises have become known for their outlandish promotions and wacky theme nights, last Friday’s game between the Charlotte Knights and the Gwinnett Stripers took a wild turn right off the bat.

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As part of Charlotte’s Night at the Knights annual ‘Sport A Shirt’ charity event with the Ronald McDonald House, they had a special guest sing the U.S. national anthem: Ronald McDonald.

And, despite being in full makeup and costume, the main mascot of the global fast-food brand wasn’t clowning around.

While many laughed at the sight of the mascot’s performance, many also were left in disbelief as he belted out the Star-Spangled Banner at Truist Field.

“You never know what you’ll see in the ballpark,” the Knights captioned an Instagram post, including a video of the performance.

Barstool Sports shared the viral clip and wrote, “You could have 1000 tries and never guess who is singing this national anthem.”

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The Knights, who are the triple-A affliate for the Chicago White Sox, seemingly took notice and responded, “Hey look it’s us.”

A user on X claiming to be a McDonald’s franchise owner heaped praise on those who sign up to portray the company’s mascot.

“Being a Ronald is actually quite difficult and a rigorous process. The talent they all carry is quite impressive. I’m pretty sure I know this Ronald and I had no clue he could sing,” McFranchisee wrote on X with a clip of the viral video.

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“This appearance at the White Sox AAA club in Charlotte is one for the books. Def not on the bingo card.”

How did fans react online?

The clip quickly went viral, racking up more than 13 million views on Jomboy Media’s X account.

“i always knew Ronald had the range,” McDonald’s official X account posted in reply to the clip.

“This might be the most American thing ever,” another user wrote.

“When they ask you to book Michael McDonald but you hear what you wanna hear,” a third user joked.

While most of the comments were in praise of the shockingly good performance, there was at least one hater: Wendy’s.

The rival burger chain had this to say about the McDonald’s mascot’s performance: “Wild that he’s actually better at singing than making burgers.”

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It looks like Ronald McDonald’s performance fired up the home team, too. Charlotte cooked the Stripers, winning the game 21-1.

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