The game that made a song sporting staple

CHICAGO — On Tuesday afternoon, the crowd at Wrigley Field will be asked to stand and “gentlemen” reminded to remove their caps for the playing of “The Star-spangled Banner.” Fans who can recite the words as easily as the alphabet will sing or listen to the story of a flag that continued to wave throughout one of the most famous battles in American history.

What they may not know is that Francis Scott Key put his description of the battle of Fort Mchenry to an

ANTHEM

old English tune that had a lot less to do with patriotism than it did with booze and women. Or that this year marks the 100th season since the song was played for the first time at a World Series game — an event that helped cement it in the national consciousness and become the national anthem that is now simply assumed to be part of game day in American sports.

“Certainly the outpouring of sentiment, enthusiasm and patriotism at the 1918 World Series went a long way to making the (song) the national anthem,” said John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s official historian.

On Sept. 5, 1918, newspapers were dominated by news of World War I. In Chicago, it was a particularly harrowing moment: Someone had the day before tossed a bomb into a downtown federal building and post office, killing four people and injuring dozens more.

“There was no cheering during the contest, nor was there anything like the usual umpire baiting,” reported one Boston newspaper.

Then, in the seventh inning, a band from the Navy training station north of Chicago started to play “The Star-spangled Banner.”

The song had been played before at major league games, from at least 1862 and on opening day in 1897, in Philadelphia, Thorn said. But this time, reported The New York Times, something happened that was “far different from any incident that has ever occurred in the history of baseball.”

Thomas’ salute

Players took off their caps as they faced a flag that fluttered atop a pole in right field as the 12-piece band began to play.

All of them except Red Sox infielder Fred Thomas.

Thomas was in the Navy during the series but was granted furlough so he could play. When the Wisconsin native heard the music, “he turned toward the flag, kept his hat on and gave a military salute,” said Jim Leeke, author of “From the Dugouts to the Trenches: Baseball During the Great War.”

A few fans began to sing. Others joined in, “and when the final notes came, a great volume of melody rolled across the field,” the Times reported. When it ended, “onlookers exploded into thunderous applause and rent the air with a cheer that marked the highest point of the day’s enthusiasm.”

Sousa’s influence

Not everyone thought what happened was a big deal. Chicago sportswriter Ring Lardner mentioned it, but only as a punch line as he reported that Thomas had stood at attention during the anthem and when the umpire was calling him out on strikes.

The leader of the Navy band at the time was John Philip Sousa. He was not at the game but had recently arranged the standardized version of the song that is still played today.

It wasn’t until 1931 that Congress and President Herbert Hoover officially designated the song as the national anthem. Still, it was clear the song was on its way after that day in Chicago.

For one thing, it was played when the series got back to Boston. And as one story goes, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee was so impressed with the way the song quieted rowdy fans that the next season that he ordered the band to play it while the flag was presented on the field.

The song was played just on holidays or special occasions for years. It wasn’t until the 1940s during World War II that major league teams started playing it every day. Ironically, Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley decided the song would be played only on major holidays and for special events.

In 1967, the Cubs put the song on the daily playlist, a patriotic gesture during yet another war, this one in Vietnam.