We can avoid botching the national anthem like Ingrid Andress. But you won’t like it | Opinion

Pour one out for Teoscar Hernández.

He won baseball’s Home Run Derby on Monday, part of the All-Star festivities at the Rangers’ Globe Life Field. But few are talking about his triumphant performance.

No, the thing that got the most attention was the botched version of the national anthem by Ingrid Andress, a Grammy-nominated country singer. She struggled with high notes, slurred the words and couldn’t stay on key.

We love to hate a miserable performance like that, don’t we? Whether it’s schadenfreude or a chance to show our patriotic bona fides, nothing will light up the Internet more than someone stumbling in a major moment like that.

But here’s the thing: Why do we do it at all?

It makes no sense for sporting events to start with the anthem. Other public gatherings don’t. Have you ever been to a rock concert or a movie or a theatrical performance where everyone first stood up and sang “The Star-Spangled Banner?” (The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is a notable exception.)

Of course not. It’s an odd conflation of sports with country. It first started in the Civil War and resumed during World War II, which was admittedly a vital time to display patriotism.

But like so many traditions, it just kind of carried on, done by rote and not with any particular meaning or fervor.

Sure, there are times when it’s a powerful, important moment, such as when the country is at war or on the verge of it. But even then, we don’t carry it over to other public activities. Just sports.

And frankly, the ubiquity has sucked a lot of the meaning out of it. It’s not all that special if we’re doing it out of habit. Love of country and national unity don’t get much of a boost from a sparse crowd singing the anthem on a Wednesday night before two sub-.500 baseball teams hit the field.

A similar thing happened with “God Bless America,” which was added to the seventh-inning stretch in ballparks after the 2001 terrorist attacks. It was a powerful moment, a tribute to the dead and the determination to defend our country against evil. Now, it’s incongruous. Why are we doing this night after night?

You can tell the regularity has sapped the singing of the anthem of its meaning, too. When Dallas Stars fans — and I am absolutely guilty of this, many times — shout the team’s nickname as the word “star” comes up twice in the lyrics, that’s not about love of country. That’s about the desire to beat the snot out of, say, the Vegas Golden Knights (whose fans, bereft of tradition of their own, co-opted the idea, shouting “Knights” when “night” comes around in the song).

We’d lose something without the anthem. Who doesn’t get chills when they hear Whitney Houston’s classic version before the Super Bowl in 1991? Who didn’t love Chris Stapleton’s simple guitar paired with his distinctive, powerful voice in 2023.

Perhaps that’s the answer: Save it for the biggest events. The Olympics and other international competitions? Sure. The Super Bowl? Of course, it’s one of our biggest holidays.

A Saturday matinee between the Tigers and Rays? Not so much.

Maybe Andress did us a favor with what she called a drunken spree so ill-timed that she’s going to rehab. Maybe this one time, outrage and laughter will lead to a little bit of common sense.