The 1918 World Series was not the first series to feature the anthem, but it was one of the most memorable. Babe Ruth played for Boston then, and the Red Sox were in Chicago taking on the Cubs for the championship. The crowd was flat: The Cubs weren't playing well, the weather was crummy — and, at a much more significant level, World War I still raged.
During the seventh-inning stretch, the band struck up the anthem. "And one of the players on the field, who's in the Navy, just sort of snaps to attention," Clague says.
"I even read some accounts where players marched military-style with their bats over their shoulders," says researcher Sheryl Kaskowitz, author of the book God Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song. "It really was seen as an important acknowledgment of the war."
According to Clague, "the crowd responded [to the anthem]. It gets written up in the newspaper as this amazing moment that brings the stadium back to life at a time of despair, both sporting-wise and for the country. And the legend is, that inspires 'The Star-Spangled Banner' to be played at the next game and then back in Boston and then returns to Chicago. And becomes the thing from then on out."
Twenty years on from that World Series moment, the song was a regular occurrence — not just in baseball, but at hockey and football games as well. Its spread was helped along in the 1920s by the increased use of public address systems, and fueled by surging patriotism in the run-up to the U.S. entering World War II.
