The National Anthem Performance At Last Night's MLB Home Run Derby Has To Be Heard To Be Believed

The Star Spangled Banner has a strange history in Major League Baseball. First and foremost, there’s an argument that it shouldn’t be sung at sporting events. It makes no sense that, in a free country, we should swear fealty via song before spending $17 on nachos. Second, the song has racist origins and probably shouldn’t be sung anywhere. Third, it has been butchered pretty consistently. There have been countless bad performances of the song. For a long time, Roseanne Barr had the most infamous rendition.

In 1990, Roseanne sang the National Anthem at a San Diego Padres game. She can’t sing and sounds as such. Then, after finishing her rendition, she adjusted her crotch and pretended to spit, mocking baseball players. That’s (debatably) funny! People at the time did not think so. Long before conservatives argued that Roseanne should be able to compare Black people to monkeys, they did not care for her on-field antics.

Roseanne’s performance may be replaced as one of the worst ever. Country singer Ingrid Andress sang the anthem at last night’s Home Run Derby. It was less of a home run and more of a fielder’s choice. Andress struggled mightily with the song, almost immediately. She struggles with the notes, key changes, everything. She has such a hard time that if you told me it was a bit, I would believe you.

Singing is hard. Especially in front of a large crowd! Still, Andress is not a blue-collar comedian with a hit sitcom; she is a successful singer. While that hopefully means this will just become a footnote in her career, it also means she should have known whether or not she could sing the song. Maybe the rehearsal went better.

Definitely one of the anthems of all time pic.twitter.com/LvSYSmR1wF

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) July 16, 2024