7th Inning Stretch: Status of "God Bless America"?

[HuckleB]

Went to the M's-Twins opener at Safeco yesterday, and I was shocked (pleasantly) that the seventh-inning stretch wasn't tweaked by yet another rendition of "God Bless America," the lack of which left me feeling incredibly relaxed. It's amazing what a lack of false patriotism can do!

Still, I noticed that the song in question was sung in Cincinnati.

What's the status of this in your home ballpark?

[Mr.Green93]

1. Shouldn't that song be illegal

in parks paid for with public money?

[FSogol]

9. Our home opening isn't until the 14th.

But at least we have a team now.

Go Nats!

[DrGonzoLives]

2. Most don't do it anymore

I think the Yankees are about it, providing even more evidence of just how evil they are.

[bertha katzenengel]

4. Wasn't singing that song at Yankee Stadium a requirement of the Patriot

Act? ;)

[Roland99]

3. Oh please let it be so everywhere!

Even in minor league parks (which is all we have here.) Although, I don't remember if they did GBA last year.


But, yeah, singing that song is such a fucking charade.

[Withywindle]

5. It's always been "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" here...

...the best was when Ozzy Osbourne sang it. He doesn't know any of the words but I guess it didn't matter much.


Damn, isn't the real national anthem at the beginning enough? How much cheesey nationalism can you take when you just wanna watch a game?

[old blue]

10. They actually said the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE before the game

at the Cubs' home opener last year (I was there).

[Withywindle]

13. Ex-cessive!

I hate mass recitations. Smells like fascist spirit. (Maybe I'm just still getting bad Girl Scout and 4-H Club flashbacks too.)

[shakerbaker]

6. I was at Safeco too

and I was pleased at No God Bless America as well. It was also the first time for me that I felt uneasy during the National Anthem and did not sing along.Sad.

[fryguy]

7. don't know yet, we haven't had our home opener yet

but something tells me they will be playing it at Shea....


and what bothers me about the playing of it, along with all the obligatory flag waving and "U S A" chants is that it is not only a sign of fals patriotism, but a confusion of patiotism with nationalism....

[RobertSeattle]

8. I'm going tonight - will report if GBA is sung

I'm always amused by the "token" handful of players that come out for the National Anthem prior to baseball games. I wonder if there is some clubhouse rule about sending some token player or two out.

[northzax]

14. well remember that a good chunk

of MLB players are not US citizens...

[RobertSeattle]

16. That'd would be an interesting stat to know

I did a google and didn't see anything. A table of Player + Birth Nation + Current Citizenship would be interetsing.

[RobertSeattle]

22. GBA sung at Safeco Tuesday night

By a female airman (sp?) - it was Armed Forces night.

[HuckleB]

23. I hope that's a one time deal.

Just a part of the special night...

[RobertSeattle]

24. What are you talking about?

After 1st Inning: Recite 10 Commandants
After 3rd Inning: Recite Pledge of Allegiance
After 5th Inning: Group sing of "Proud to be an American, Cuz..."

:evilgrin:

[Princess Turandot]

11. They still do it at Yankee Stadium and I for one am glad that they do..

a lot of it remains recognition of 9-11. All of the Yankees stand at the top of the steps for both songs. The YES network does not cut to commercial during the seventh inning stretch. And we even get world famous singers (live ones) now and then.

When the people who buy the tickets stop singing along to the song, maybe we'll go back to the insipid 'take me back to the ballgame'.
I wouldn't count on it happening any time soon.

[stopbush]

12. Can't agree. Enough is enough.

It's a GAME! Some other thoughts:

1. Ronin Tynan is no Robert Merrill. Now that Merrill is dead, I wish they'd play the tape of him singing "Take me out to the ballgame" like they used to. And they ought to play his recording of "America the Beautiful" like they used to in place of the Star Spangled Banner. The crowd can get their "god" reference out of the way at the end of AtB (god shed his grace on thee). At least it's a better piece of music than that old drinking song, aka The SSB.

2. God Bless America is still under copyright. Why pay royalties when you don't have to?

3. Everybody can sing along on "Take Me Out..." Being a non-religious type, I would decline to sing GBA.

4. Half the stadium is looped by the 7th inning stretch. I say give 'em something that sounds good when sung by a bunch of drunks, ie: Take me out...


Go, Yankees!


:)

[Princess Turandot]

17. It's a free country..

Merrill was never my favorite singer and having heard Ronan Tynan sing indoors in person, I think he has a lovely voice. (I'm a bit of an opera nut.) Plus, he has an amazing story. He was born with disproportionately short legs, both of which he lost below the knees in a motorcycle accident when he was 20. He subsequently won more than a dozen gold medals at the Paralympics over the years, while becoming a medical doctor. He began studying singing late in life (relatively) and gave up orthopaedic medicine for it.

I don't know how he would sound in a big, unmiked house like the Met, but I like him. The problem with his singing in stadiums is the reverberation of the broadcast system.

Assuming you're not anti-european immigration, listen to his version of 'Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears' some time, which is a song about the Ellis Island immigrants.

BTW, I consider 'God Bless America' to be as religious a song as I consider a dollar bill to be a Mass card. To each his own. On the Yankees, I most certainly agree.

[stopbush]

18. Glad you're an opera nut.

That's how I made my $ when I lived in NYC - singing tenor in opera companies, church gigs, etc. I tend to like the heaftier tenor voices - Corelli, Tucker, Jon F West, Vickers. John McCormick was THE Irish tenor - the rest are wannabes.

I know Tynan's story - much to be admired there. But Merrill's singing is so echt NYC to me. BTW - I was at the Stadium the day they gave DiMaggio the replacement WS rings. It was the last time he came...he died shortly thereafter. It was the last game of that season. Merrill showed up and sang...and Rizzuto did the honors IIRC. I brought my son who was 4-5 at the time. I thought it was important that he be there.

Further BTW - I'm hardly anti-European: I'd move to France or Ireland in a heartbeat if I could!

Go Yankees!

[Princess Turandot]

25. Where did you perform? nt

[stopbush]

26. Carnegie Hall, Connecticut Grand Opera, NJ State Opera,

Opera Omaha, St Pat's Cathedral, 5th Ave Pres, Marble Collegiate Church, Mad Ave Presb, St Vincent Ferrer, NY Grand Opera (in Central Park and elsewhere) a bunch of small companies in the tri-state area. I was also the cantor at the Holy Trinity RC Church at Dag H Plaza - the NY Diocese mission to the UN - for a couple of years. Imelda Marcos used to show up there.

Lots of temple work, too. I used to sing the High Holidays at the Concord and Raleigh Hotels in the Catskills and also at the Ethical Cultural Center with Temple Habonim...and one year at Stephen Wise (there were no Jewish tenors available, so they hired us goyum).

Freelance gigging was a tough lifestyle!

[Princess Turandot]

30. I can imagine..

one of my long term friends tried to make a go of it at playing baroque woodwinds, mostly recorder. Built her own clavichord. Tough to break into a group, though..she worked for a while at a place which made recorders and other baroque instruments because the owner was a big macher in the NYC baroque ensemble world. She eventually married a guy whom she met at a summer program at Oberlin, who played Viola da Gamba as an avocation. After she got married, she went into the comp science world.

Did you sing any concert versions of operas? I've only heard one live: Nabucco at Carnegie Hall which has no plot but beautiful music.

Did you sing at the main Marble Collegiate or the one down on 8th Street & Second Avenue?

I had a subscription to the Met for years. I eventually gave it up because of the cost & because my 'opera partner' got transferred to the West coast, and opera is a hard date to fill lol. Once, we were seated next to the parents of a guy from a mid-Atlantic opera company, who was singing in the chorus of Meistersinger but actually had a single phrase to sing. He popped by to see them at some intermission. He and they were as thrilled as could be.

I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Domingo sing Otello 3 times, once with Renee Fleming and once with April Millo, and also by chance was there the nights that they filmed their sales version of Tosca & Turandot, both with Domingo. (Witness my nickname.) Mirella Freni once, in Fedora. Dame Joan at the end of her career, in Fille du Regiment. Stiffelio once, with Domingo.I heard Carreras sing in Carmen once, unusual because he doesn't appear at the Met much at all.

I did not attend my first opera until my mid-twenties; it was Traviata. The first scene left me unconvinced; the second hooked me forever! I have abt 250 full opera recordings at this point, as well as extraits and various vocal music. I like buying offbeat recordings of lesser known operas by well known composers, such as the Donizetti operas released by Opera Rara. (Finances & space have sort of limited me at this point.)

I'm very good with numbers & a decent avocational artist & photographer, but I wish that I could sing! You have to give the Yankees props for bringing in real singers, as opposed to the Cowsills..:evilgrin:

I'll end now, since this is off topic and because I could go on forever!

[MessiahRp]

31. That song isn't in recognition of 9/11

in my opinion at all... it's a song pushed hard by the Christian Right to be our new National Anthem. America the Beautiful would be more fitting for baseball games and less pushy.

But it's been 4 years since 9/11. At some point we need to move on. The right wingers exploit 9/11 at every turn for political/sympathetic gain but that doesn't mean the rest of America should have to do the same.

Baseball is supposed to be a relaxing "Pasttime"... a getaway from the bullshit in the real world... nothing has been more bullshit than the linking of America to God (if there were one I doubt he'd give a fuck about our "tragedy" considering what we've done in the Middle East) by the fundamentalist right.

I for one say kill the song. (Not to mention it's an awful song)

Rp

[Princess Turandot]

32. NYC is a hotbed of the Christian Right? NYC???

That's news to me. We probably do have a lot of right handed Christians however, percentages and all. I've no idea whether right-wing Christians want that song to replace the national anthem, but if they do, it's of no moment in the Baseball Cathedral in the Bronx.
If I was going to replace it at the Stadium, I'd pick the Battle Hymn of the Republic, myself. Much better music.Gets the blood flowing.

Of course the song is not 'about' 9-11 but that's what it symbolizes to many people when played at Yankee Stadium. If the folks buying the tickets want it to stop, they'll let the Yankees know.

You may not think about 9-11 anymore because of moral relativism, if I interpret your comment correctly. That's your choice. A lot of people here in NYC still feel that 'tragedy' strongly. Next time you're in NYC, buy a bleacher seat at the stadium and tell 'em what you think.

Personally, I'm far more offended by the sexism that they show when they play the Sinatra version of 'New York, New York' when they win, and Liza's version when they lose, since they always play the song at the end of a home game.

Should we ditch playing the National Anthem before events as well?
We only hear the first stanza when it is sung, but the last stanza includes a wicked phrase:

"Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"

[MessiahRp]

33. I am not saying 9/11 is not a strongly felt tragedy

but isn't part of the healing the attempt to move on rather than to rehash the pain consistently?

And no NYC as a whole is not right wing fanatical but when you play a song linking God to America, how exactly does that have to do with healing after 9/11? It seems to me the people that push that song most are the same people pushing religion into our schools and in Congress.

And do I agree with the Star Spangled Banner? No. I have serious issues with it but unfortunately it is our national anthem and that's the way it is. God Bless America is not however.

Also, if I were to buy a ticket at Yankee Stadium it wouldn't be to bitch about the song, but it would garner a negative reaction anyways because as a Red Sox fan I would be booing the Yanks like crazy. :)

Here in Wisconsin, at Brewers' games they play Take Me Out to the Ballgame and Roll Out the Barrel. Both songs are still fun songs that don't drag down the fun escape that a Baseball game is supposed to represent.

You wouldn't want to pay to go to a movie and about 3/4ths of the way through they stop rolling the film to play "God Bless America" would you? I would think it would kill the entertainment of the evening.

Rp

[HuckleB]

34. "Roll Out The Barrel" ...

I forgot about that, I think. It seems to me that I have memories of that at Milwaukee County from my youth in the late '70s and early '80s.

Dang. Gonna have to get to Milwaukee again for a game sometime.

[Inland]

15. Where is Major ---- deCoverly when you need him?

Gimme EAT!

[KitchenWitch]

19. At the Metrodome

Twins fans are "treated" to that uber"patriotic" Lee Greenwood song.

Opening day is Friday...I will let you all know if we will still be subjected to it.

:puke:

[HuckleB]

20. Ouch!

Okay. I won't complain anymore.

:hi:

[KitchenWitch]

29. Just got back from the game

They (at least for the opener) ditched Lee Greenwood and "treated" us to a lengthy version of God Bless America - the singer did not get all the words right, and the version she sang was at least as long as Ronan Tynen's when he sings it at Yankee Stadium.

GRRR

[jakefrep]

21. I am convinced that Lee Greenwood is a terrorist...

The only time he makes any money from his songs is when something bad happens to the United States.

[PDittie]

27. "Deep In the Hearta Texas" follows

Take Me Out" at Minute Maid Park.

No "God Bless". Thank God.

[DaveinMD]

28. every Yankee game

it pissed me off when they play the Kate Smith recording. Ronan Tynan does such a good job it doesn't bother me so much.