Dear Major League Baseball,

On the night that you so aggressively market as one of the most important in your sport - the All-Star Game - I encourage you to choose a singer who can properly pay tribute to our nation. Tonight’s version of “The Star Spangled Banner,” sung by San Francisco native Chris Isaak, was a disgrace. It is shameful that a grown man does not know the words to his national anthem, and reprehensible that executives would put someone on the field unless they were certain he knew the words. Mr. Isaak’s version follows:

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous night (correct word: fight)
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the fight (correct: night) that our flag was still there;O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
For (correct: O’er) the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The last error is the most common, and the most egregious, but that does not excuse the other two. Yes, the notes are difficult - Roseanne Barr proved that much - but the words are not challenging. Mr. Isaak, please learn the words to the national anthem. Mr. Selig and the rest of MLB, please make sure this embarrassment does not happen again.

Yours,
Movie Hawk

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