And don’t get me started on the auteurs who go out there and sing the correct words to an entirely different melody. Seventy-five percent butchered at least one note. Twenty-five percent of those singers messed up a word or two. There was one point when I was working for ESPN that I attended so many sporting events a year I must have heard the song sung live 200 times per annum. Second, the song is damn near impossible to sing well. I’ve always thought that the purple mountains majesty of “America the Beautiful” would make for a better tone setter for our country. First of all, it’s a poor choice for our anthem, in my opinion, because it’s a bloody, stilted poem about bombs bursting in air. I remember nothing from that game except for the man who played the trumpet right before it began.Ģ009 was long before anyone thought to kneel during the national anthem, but truth be told, I always had some misgivings about “The Star-Spangled Banner” being played before sporting events. Thirteen years ago, when I was only a few seasons into my career as a sportswriter, I took my seat in the press box in Viera, Fla., for a Nationals spring training game against I don’t remember who. Jim Doepke performs the national anthem before an Orioles spring training game in Sarasota, Fla., in March 2011.
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