STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
OK, today's history lesson - this Sunday is the 200th anniversary of the defense of Fort McHenry. That's the name of a poem written by Francis Scott Key, better known today as "The Star-Spangled Banner." Commentator Frank DeFord explains the national anthem has long been tied to the national pastime.
FRANK DEFORD, BYLINE: Is any national anthem so identified with sports as ours is? That's probably because the Star-Spangled Banner is played before every baseball game, and baseball games are legion. The anthem is even responsible for that oldest of sports jokes. What's the last two words of the national anthem? Play ball.
But then baseball itself was at least somewhat responsible for helping Francis Scott Key's stirring song to be officially ordained as our anthem in 1931. Indeed, "The Star-Spangled Banner" has been played at baseball games as early, perhaps, as 1862.
But what really gave it prominence was when it was performed during the first world war - opener of the 1918 World Series - Red Sox versus Cubs. OK - seventh- inning stretch, the band strikes up the Star-Spangled Banner and the Boston third baseman, one Fred Thomas, on furlough from active duty for the series, stands there at the hot corner saluting. And the other Sox, including, presumably, Babe Ruth himself, who was the Boston pitcher, put their hands on their hearts, and the patriotic fans do likewise. A great volume of melody rolled across the field, sighed The New York Times. Oh say, can you see it now?
In the years that followed, Mr. Key's melody was reserved mostly for holiday games, but everyday treatment started during World War II. And now, of course, for every sport the anthem is as requisite as the game ball. Altogether, too many performances are awful. Singers try too hard. They all ought to listen to Renee Fleming's flawless rendition at this year's Super Bowl. So many singers drag it out, that Vegas now offers an over-and-under bet on how long the Super Bowl troubadour will warble. Last year, Alicia Keys staggered in at two minutes, 36 seconds. Please - you should hit the home of the brave in about two minutes. Ms. Fleming came in at 203, you see?
Key - and by the way, as a Frank myself, I want you to know that his buddies called him Frank, not Francis. Frank Key dashed off the anthem 200 years ago this coming Sunday after watching the British bomb Baltimore. He was a Washington boy - that backwater of the Capitol which the British had just burned. And he didn't like Baltimore because he thought it was too war-crazy. But when by the dawn's early light, he saw that the flag was still there, flying over Fort McHenry, that sure, shall we say, changed his tune.
If ever there was a hunch bet this anniversary year, it would be that Baltimore's O's - or, as the hometown fans scream, oh, when it gets to, oh say, does that star-spangled banner still wave - that the hometown O's will beat Frank Key's Washingtons in the World Series. And this very bicentennial Sunday, the Orioles will be home, playing the Yankees at Camden yards, hardly three miles from Fort McHenry.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RENEE FLEMING: (Singing) The brave.
DEFORD: Play ball.
INSKEEP: Ah - chokes me up every single time.
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