O, say can you see an end to anthem debate?

Deep thoughts, cheap shots & bon mots from my cardboard standin ... The national anthem is not going anywhere. Count me among the many people who would like to see the grand old song used much more sparingly, but the leagues and teams can’t go that route. They can’t afford to, because that song has become a political football. Stop playing it and you rile up a sizable number of fans, many of whom already feel bullied by having to watch players protest.

⏩ What if MLB (or the NFL or NBA) sends out a memo saying the anthem must be played every game, but a team defies the rule, citing freedom of expression?

⏩ Does this wind up in the Supreme Court? Does the Supreme Court play the national anthem before each day’s session?

⏩ The president has indicated he won’t watch any sport in which the athletes protest during the anthem. So he won’t be watching baseball, football, basketball or soccer. That will leave him more time to do what we elected him to do — play golf.

⏩ The national anthem debate can have no winner, but it does have countless side arguments. Many fans object to creative renditions of the song, like those by Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye and Carlos Santana .So you want the anthem performed before every game, notefornote as written, with zero variation? That should pep up the whole experience.

⏩ One thing we could do without: The national anthem performer intros. And now, to perform our national anthem, fivetime Grammy nominee and multiplatinum recording artist, star of her own hit Netflix series, and former Secretary of the Interior ...

⏩ I second the emotion of ESPN’s Howard Bryant :“If I took a knee, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want anyone touching me. If you’re going to leave me down there, then leave me down there.”

⏩ If you play a sport watched by millions, you owe it to yourself to get the straight info on what you’re protesting or not protesting. I went to the Black Lives Matter website, read the statement of beliefs, and didn’t find anything that seems like it would be objectionable to the Jesus I’ve heard about. But I’m no theologian.

⏩ Sad baseball stat: Number of hot dogs sold at the Oakland Coliseum this season by ace vendor Tom Hanks: Zero.

⏩ Maybe that’s because fans know Tom had the ’Rona.

⏩ Teams that put cardboard cutouts of fans in the seats should have photos of the backs of the fans’ heads on the backs of the cutouts. As it is now, from behind, the rows of cutouts look like tombstones.

⏩ I’m waiting for the first cardboard fan to be decapitated by a foul ball.

⏩ Bonus to any Giants hitter who beheads Tommy Lasorda’s cutout. All in good fun!

⏩ “If the Giants win the World Series,” asks reader Pete Tanti, “will the cutouts be moved to Market Street for the parade?”

⏩ Real journalist Peter King says MLB teams should cull the archives of past telecasts for fan shots, then categorize the shots — happy fans, booing fans, foulballcatching fans, leaving the ball park in disgust fans, historic fans — and insert the shots in telecasts.

⏩ “It would be fun to watch FDR celebrating a Brandon Crawford home run.” It would be fun to watch Brandon Crawford celebrating a Brandon Crawford home run.

⏩ I want to be calm and measured about this. I am assuming the Giants are keeping Joey Bart on the JV team for five games in order to preserve a full year of service time. If he’s not called up for Game 6 and dropped into the starting lineup, the manager, GM and team owner should all be fired.

⏩ Every MLB team has an Infection Control Prevention Coordinator. Too many words! Does this person control the prevention, or prevent the control? Or does he/she coordinate the Control and Prevention departments? Let’s call him/her the Covid Cop. Eligible for the Dr. Anthony Fauci MVICPC Award.

⏩ When “Wild Thing” Fauci threw out that first ball before Thursday night’s Nationals-Yankees game, where was the Bob Uecker soundtrack? Tell you what, the good doctor has a hell of a pickoff move.

⏩ Someday, someone will write a story about Alex Smith without using the word “gruesome.”

⏩ Smith’s club, the Washington Football Team, a perpetually misguided organization, should rebrand itself as Washington Team Football — WTF.

⏩ A player on this year’s winning World Series team will say, “We couldn’t have done it without our fans, the best soundtrack in baseball!”

⏩ With the new threebatters rule for relief pitchers, why hasn’t anyone signed the ambidextrous Pat Venditte?

⏩ I wonder if the ghost of Al Davis still makes the postgame rounds of the Coliseum dressing room that the A’s are using as their clubhouse.

⏩ Hidden in all the bad news about the 49ers since the Super Bowl is this ray of light: Last month, the team announced an exclusive multiyear contract with Manscaped, the 49ers’ “official belowthewaist grooming partner.” Remember, players, the contract is exclusive, so don’t get caught cheating with a rival belowthewaist groomer.

⏩ I hope it’s a nocut contract.

Alex Brandon / Associated Press Dr. Anthony Fauci steps up and delivers a memorable first pitch on Opening Day in the nation’s capital. It did not go well for the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, but apparently no one was injured.