José Feliciano’s life began in Puerto Rico. Congenital glaucoma left him blind at birth. Five years later, he moved with his family to New York City. He learned to play the accordion and then mastered a $10 Stella guitar.

He says he would practice 14 hours a day.

"To me, it meant everything — because it took me a while to learn to play it, because I taught myself," Feliciano says. "When I would get home from school, that's where I went — to the guitar, immediately. I tuned into American Bandstand, and I would play with whatever records they played at that time."

Feliciano started playing coffee houses in Greenwich Village, then clubs around the country. In 1968, he won two Grammys, and his version of The Doors’ "Light my Fire" rocketed to No. 3 on the charts.

That year, he also caught the attention of someone in the Detroit Tigers organization.

The 1968 World Series

"I heard about this young Puerto Rican, blind, who had burst on the scene," says late Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell in a 2009 video recorded by the Detroit Free Press.

Harwell was an amateur songwriter. So Tigers General Manager Jim Campbell had tasked him with recruiting anthem singers for the three 1986 World Series games in Detroit against the St. Louis Cardinals.

For Games 3 and 4, everything went according to plan. First, nightclub singer Margaret Whiting took the field. Then, it was Motown star Marvin Gaye.

"It was a little ironic that Campbell asked me, ‘Would you please go to Marvin and ask him not to give too much of a soul rendition?’ " Harwell says in the 2009 video. "So I did. And he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll sing it straight.’ "

But Feliciano says Harwell never asked him to sing the anthem straight.

"He didn't have a chance to talk to me, which I'm glad of," Feliciano says. "Because if I'm told not to do something, I'll do it anyway.

"I had been working on a version of the anthem ... oh, at least a year before that. But it was totally radical and different than what I did. And I said, ‘Well, José, you know what? Maybe you shouldn't be so radical and do it a little bit easier for them to listen to — and know that you weren't messing around with the anthem.’ "

The 23-year-old Feliciano walked with his service dog to center field, settled onto a stool and cradled his guitar.

"That came out of nowhere. We weren’t expecting anything different," says former Tigers pitcher John Hiller. "We said, ‘Oh, my God, Ernie — what did you do?’ "

Former Tigers pitcher John Warden was was standing near Hiller on the third baseline.

" ‘Holy cow, what's that? What's he doing?’ " Warden remembers thinking. "And everybody's looking around at each other. And you can hear the fans are sort of — you hear that background rumble."

"Well, I heard some cheers, but they were very sparse," Feliciano recalls. "And I heard a lot of boos. And I said, ‘Wow, what did I do? Why are they booing me?’ "