Most years I spend October watching my beloved New York Yankees in the World Series. When they're not in the Series, I spend the month hating baseball. From the depth of my disappointment, I will now begin a best-in-seven-short-blog-series on the things that have ruined baseball. If it takes seven blog posts to get this out of my system, so be it. If I can kill it four, then all the better for my four loyal readers.
This is the story of how Al Qeada ruined baseball.
After the attacks of September 11, the Commissioner suspended games until Sept.16. The Yankees had their first post 9/11 home game on Sept 25. At the seventh inning stretch, instead of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", an Irish Tenor sang "God Bless America".
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| Other hand genius. |
Okay, that was patriotic and sentimental. I'm glad we got that out of our systems. But it wasn't a one-time happening. This became a new tradition for the Yankees. Then the tradition spread to almost all of Major League Baseball. Yankee Stadium even put in place a "no moving" rule during the singing of "God Bless America". A guy sued them in 2009 because he was forced by security to leave the game because he left his seat. It's the stretch!!! This is when you're supposed to get up!
Wait. It get's worse. Fans and players alike remove their caps and face the flag, hands on hearts. This is not the national anthem! It's an Irving Berlin show tune. Sometimes it's not even a person singing. It's a scratchy old Kate Smith record. No one should have to stand solemnly in place, and face the flag and salute for a scratchy recording of a show tune. We don't genuflect for "Ya Got Trouble" from The Music Man. We don't lower our heads in prayer for "Maria" from West Side Story.
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