God Bless America at baseball games
Earlier today, in fact a few minutes ago while watching Zooey Deschanel sing the song, I wondered when baseball teams started playing God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch at baseball games.
Immediately, five people told me, “9/11,” which made me feel dumb for asking.
Anyway, here is what the New York Times wrote about God Bless America at MLB games.
The national anthem has long been a pregame staple at sporting events. But after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Major League Baseball directed teams to play “God Bless America” before the bottom of the seventh inning at every game. Baseball scaled back the next season, telling teams they needed to play the song only on Sundays and holidays, which is still the case.
Only the Yankees continue to play “God Bless America” at every home game.
I watched dozens of baseball games this year; probably somewhere near 100. Maybe a little more. I watched much fewer games once the Dodgers were out of it.
Anyway, I rarely saw them sing the song; I would watch most games online at MLB.tv (a great deal for baseball fans, by the way, especially if you are out of market), and MLB.tv cut away for commercials (and the 7th inning stretch).
Of course, there is some controversy with the singing of God Bless America. Well, not the song itself, but… from the same NY Times story:
By mid-October 2001, he said, the Yankees’ implemented a system using off-duty uniformed police officers, ushers, stadium security personnel and the aisle chains to restrict movement. The Yankees pay the city to use police officers as part of the security detail.
Trost said the ushers were instructed to allow fans with emergencies to move through the stands. Because one end of each chain is held by a person, instead of secured in place, the system is not considered a fire hazard, a spokeswoman for the New York Fire Department said.
This even led to a lawsuit when a man was ejected for going to the bathroom during God Bless America.
Bradford Campeau-Laurion says in his federal lawsuit that his rights were violated at an Aug. 26 game between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox when he tried to pass a police officer, who was being paid by the Yankees to work at the Bronx stadium.
The lawsuit said the officer did not let him take a step before grabbing his right arm and twisting it behind him. It said two officers marched him down several ramps to an exit, where he was pushed out as one officer told him to leave the country if he didn’t like it.
Campeau-Laurion, a director of Web productions for a media company, does not participate in religious services and objects to being required to do so, the lawsuit said. He is proud to be an American but objects to being required to participate in displays of patriotism, it added.
Campeau-Laurion won $10,001 from the lawsuit (from the city, not the Yankees). No one admitted any wrongdoing.
And three teens were ejected from a minor league game for not standing for God Bless America.
In a lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Newark, three Millburn High School students contend Newark Bears president and co-owner Thomas Cetnar berated them, cursed at them and then booted them from the ballpark after they failed to stand for the song during the seventh-inning stretch.
“Nobody sits during the singing of ‘God Bless America’ in my stadium,’” Cetnar bellowed during the June 29 incident, according to the suit. “Now the get the (expletive) out of here.”
As far as I can tell, that suit hasn’t been settled yet.
On a pure baseball level, the Twins complained about the long break between the first and second half of the seventh caused by the song’s rendition.
But when the team continued to play the song every game the next year, opponents began complaining about the lengthy delay it causes so late in a game. Perhaps most notably, then Twins ace Johan Santana and his former manager, Ron Gardenhire complained about it more than once in 2004, claiming that it was a significant tactical advantage for New York.
Anyway, if you have anything to add to this, let me know.
