Friday, May 29, 2009

Music: God Bless America


Found this article on the excellent True/Slant. It's about Yankee Stadium security kicking a guy out for trying to go to the bathroom during God Bless America. First of all--they still sing that song? Second--seriously? Leave it to the Yankees. Sounds like the guy was drunk, but it also sounds like the security staff did, in fact, tell him to wait till the song was over. I've never really understood why they insist on playing this song every game. I mean, I've never really understood the point of singing the actual national anthem before a game involving two American teams either, but that's for another post.

This whole thing seems really creepy and resembles something that we Americans think only happens in some other country. And it's not just the security staff. I'm pretty sure that every single time I heard "God Bless America" at Shea, some sort of shouting match erupted in a section near me in which a Real American was yelling at some (usually) younger fans for not standing and/or removing their hat during the song. Bizarre. And wasn't there some issue when Delgado was acquired because the press thought that the fans might not accept him since he refused to stand for a song that isn't even our (let alone his) national anthem? I guess that whole problem never really materialized.

Anyway, the whole "God Bless America" thing is so weird to me...and it's not even a very good song. The article claims that the Yankees are the only team that still plays it. Is this true? Do the Mets still play it during the seventh inning stretch?

2 comments:

davidj said...

It's played at the Mets' stadium every Sunday & most "big" games.

nick said...

That explains why I heard it all the time. Lots of Sunday games for me.