I have covered several baseball and softball games throughout the county at this point in the season, and one thing that I quickly noticed was the absence of the playing of the National Anthem prior to games.

At first I thought they forgot, and then after a couple of more instances I thought that maybe I was missing something.

However, I have been to multiple schools for night games and day games that have been played both during the week and on the weekend and the result was always the same.

Chilton County is an extremely patriotic community, which makes the lack of an anthem even more noticeable, especially since it is prevalent before other sports, such as football and basketball.

Baseball is affectionately known as “America’s Pastime” and part of that reason is the sight before a game when the players line up down the baselines and take a few minutes to pay respect to their country as everyone else in attendance joins in.

It does not get more American than that.

I understand that certain facilities and fields are not equipped to support a sound system, and in that case at least there is a viable reason for the anthem not to be played, because it is not feasible.

However, for the fields that do have a fully functioning PA system, the solution to the problem is an easy one.

In most cases, music is already being played throughout the game between innings and as certain batters step to the plate.

What is one more song at the start of the game?