I’m all for marching bands and pep bands and singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch, but do TV networks really need songs written especially for the sporting events they cover? This trend was popularized in 1989 with ABC’s “Monday Night Football” adapting Hank Williams Jr.’s “All My Rowdy Friends Are Comin’ Over Tonight” to “All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night” (now on ESPN). But even before that was the late Dan Fogelberg’s “Run for the Roses” for the Kentucky Derby (a bit more subtle and better than most) and David Barrett’s “One Shining Moment,” which was first used by CBS to conclude its coverage of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament in 1987 (OK, that one means more when your team wins; otherwise, it’s just plain sappy). Then there’s, of course, the Super Bowl and its infamous halftime “concert” (though Tom Petty wasn’t half bad this year).

Lately it seems that most every televised sports event has some sort of song or music “event” attached to it. And the quality seems to be getting worse instead of better. Case in point: Fox’s “Let’s Go Racin’, Boys!” with Toby Lightman backed by Fox announcer Darrell Waltrip shouting “Boogity, Boogity, Boogity.” What’s next? “World Series Musical,” with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver “getting their heads in the game” while singing and dancing their way down the first-base line?

It used to be that music had a specific place in televised sports, as an intro or as “bumper music” while the network transitioned into or out of a commercial. One of the best of that genre, in my opinion, was the late Barry White and Love Unlimited Orchestra’s “Love’s Theme,” which was used years ago for ABC’s golf coverage. But that was for “atmosphere,” not hype.

Are the TV sports honchos so desperate to broaden their audiences that they feel compelled to force this music on us? Aren’t the games and their players enough to capture our attention? Does TV sports really need a soundtrack? Give us the action on the playing fields, courts, and tracks, and leave the music to the music channels. But … that’s right, the music channels don’t play music any more. Oh, well.