Robby has stated that according to Ken Burns PBS documentary, the US anthem was played during the seventh inning "stretch" (for non baseball types; this is a point in the game where the game is stopped for a time to give the fans, who may have been sitting for hours, an opportunity to get up and stretch their legs. It also provides an opportunity for the employees of the home team to remove any corpses left sitting in the seats, you know those fans that died of boredom in the previous six innings) I have nothing against anthems and have no problem with them being played at sporting events of an INTERnational nature. It just seems innapropriate to play them at other times. Albamist