Repetition cheapens, even patriotic repetition.

-Frank Deford, author and commentator for National Public Radio.

I agree. That’s why I don’t think “The Star-Spangled Banner” should precede every sporting event from high school on.

What are you, some sort of card-carrying Communist?

Hardly. I love my country and respect deeply all who died serving it.

These men and women displayed courage I doubt I could ever summon.

But to assume the national anthem played before every game is anything more than a ritual is ludicrous.

Yeah, but the point of the anthem is to honor our country.

I agree. But today, it doesn’t do a very good job of honoring when it’s played ad nauseam.

The anthem’s become as instinctive at the stadium as the baseball player crossing himself before every pitch.

“Your mind can’t help but wander to the game,” ISU point guard Lindsey Wilson says.

She’s right. Watch the athletes – on the field or at home – the next time the anthem’s played.

They’re fidgety. They sway. Roll their necks. Lock and unlock their knees.

I’m not condemning them. Nor am I blaming them. I do the same thing.

Sitting along press row night after night, I’m more likely to rise and think about my laundry than my country.

Aww, you’re just some punk college kid who can’t think of a cause greater than his own.

Maybe so. But I think most of America harbors the same thoughts.

After all, how many stories have you read or seen about outraged citizens who can’t believe nearly all broadcasted games go without televising the national anthem?

If it meant more to American sports fans, don’t you think the networks would show someone singing to a waving flag in the distance every day?

But you can’t take away the stars and stripes before a ball game. It’s as American as the Model-T and been around just as long.

Actually, it hasn’t. Babe Ruth went his entire career without having to doff his cap before every game and stand at attention.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” premiered at the 1918 World Series, but it wasn’t until World War II that it became the every-game occurrence that it is today.

All right, smart guy. Do you propose we go without the national anthem before our sporting events?

Not at all. Like the old clich‚ says, “less is more.”

Play the anthem before major sporting events only.

In high school, this means sectionals on.

In college, this means conference tournaments on.

Professionally, this means conference championships on.

(Because the playoffs — especially the NHL’s and NBA’s – are easier to get into than a locked Yugo, we need to be more judicial here.)

The point is, make the playing of the national anthem as rare and special as the game itself is.

Put it this way: Opening Day in the majors was Monday. For the next six months, the national anthem will be played 2,430 times.

And this is in the regular season of the MLB only.

This says nothing of the drawn out postseason; nor the thousands of games in the three-tiered minor-league system; nor the thousands of games in highschool baseball.

Listen, it’s a well-known fact that Pearl Jam reached the music industry’s creative zenith with its 1993 album “Vs.”

But I’m still not listening to “Daughter” 2,430 times by October.

Yeah but didn’t you think we needed the anthem after Sept. 11?

Yes. The anthem should also be played when warranted.

When the Mets played their first games at Shea after Sept. 11, there were more tears on the field than skyboxes in the stands.

But because the anthem’s been played at every level of football, baseball, volleyball, chess, swimming, wrestling, basketball game and debate match ever since, it has lost the weight of those first nights.

People won’t like not having the national anthem before every game though.

Across the rest of the world, anthems are brought out only for the grandest of games. No one seems too upset about it.

Of course, we’d want to behave better than the Canadians.

During last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, Vancouver and Edmonton fans booed our anthem before games.

Seeing as how the history between Canada and the United States is about as tame as the hot sauce at Taco Bell, I doubt it was over politics.

But I don’t doubt this: Canadians had found the anthem as repetitious as we had.

If they booed, perhaps it was because they thought it was nothing to be revered.

Playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” less should make even the Canadians pay attention when it is belted out.

Paul Kix is a junior in journalism and mass communications from Hubbard. He is the senior sports reporter for the Daily.