Fans not allowed to leave seats during singing of ‘God Bless America’ at Yankee Stadium
28 August 2008 by Stardust
During the 7th-inning singing of ‘Gawd Bless America’, a Yankees fan decided to use the bathroom during the little break. That is when he was confronted by one of New York’s “finest” and told he wasn’t allowed to leave during the religious/patriotic song. When the fan told the officer he didn’t care about ‘God Bless America’ and just needed to use the bathroom, two officers pinned both of his arms behind his back and ejected him from the stadium. What’s this country coming to where we are forced by public officers to remain seated for a religious tune at a baseball game? Of course, the police are making up their own story once the legal representatives were called in.
Here is the story and the video:
Fan Ejected From Yankee Stadium For Bathroom Break
28 August 2008, on 1:56 pm
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!? That is total bat-shit, crazy-assed theocratic terrorism! I can’t fucking believe this happened…ESPECIALLY in New York!
28 August 2008, on 2:11 pm
benjamin, I was shocked that this happened in NYC, also. I always take a break during the God Bless America crap and national anthem in Chicago for the Sox games and have never been stopped. The article says it’s a fucking Yankees rule.
And unbelievable that the cop “escorting” the fan out said to him “get out of their country if I didn’t like it”
28 August 2008, on 2:32 pm
Wait. WHAT???? No way! WAY?!?!
I…but…they’re…it’s…ARRRRRGGHHHHACCCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!
Head asplodey!
28 August 2008, on 3:02 pm
CRAZY!!!! Oh America, what has happened to thee?!
28 August 2008, on 3:02 pm
Disgusting. What was the guy supposed to do, go in his pants? If he ever goes back, I’d advise him to whip it out and take a piss right there during the song. Hey, he wasn’t supposed to get up and leave, right!?!
28 August 2008, on 3:16 pm
He’s lucky they didn’t taze him.
28 August 2008, on 4:29 pm
Worthless trash. The cops ANYWHERE will make up what they want and the judges help them write it up! Sounds like it’s time for a flaming bag of Doo.
28 August 2008, on 4:37 pm
so does anyone buy the new york pig depot’s claim that this guy was acting drunk and belligerent?
28 August 2008, on 6:16 pm
This is just wrong. And scary. It shows how so many people in our country are trying to turn it into a theocracy. What’s next? They start rounding up us atheists and sending us to jail for not accepting King Bush’s religion?
28 August 2008, on 6:22 pm
Ben, I’m surprised the cop didn’t try and suggest the guy pulled a weapon. They’ve always got an excuse.
I have no doubt the victim in this case has at least a dozen witnesses who can say otherwise. Which is probably the only reason he wasn’t beaten tazed and thrown in jail.
I’ve also got no doubt that nothing will come of this other than the man getting free tickets or some shit like that. The cops will cover it up, blame the victim and then attack anyone who says otherwise while cutting a deal behind the scenes with the lawyers.
28 August 2008, on 6:35 pm
And they call us New Yorkers godless latte sipping liberals!
28 August 2008, on 6:37 pm
Since when is it a “tradition” to sing God Bless America at the 7th inning stretch? What the hell happened to Take Me Out To The Ball Game?
28 August 2008, on 7:12 pm
The guy was actually a red sox fan, although he wasn’t wearing any Sox gear.
If someone ever got up during Fenway Park’s traditional singing of “Sweet Caroline” they should be nailed to a cross. On a nonreligious side note, the Yankees suck and their payroll is as big a waste of money as the Iraq War…
28 August 2008, on 7:29 pm
This kind of stuff scares me a little.
“get out of their country if I didn’t like it” Yes, unbelievable. The song isn’t so much a patriotic song as it is a religious song. And here I thought America was free to non-believers as well. Perhaps I was wrong.
28 August 2008, on 8:53 pm
This guy should make sure to sue George and Hank Steinbrenner, personally.
28 August 2008, on 8:55 pm
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. The Yankees have been a bit touchy lately, since they’ve been sucking wind and I’m guessing that Joe Gerardi is working on his resume. I wouldn’t take a dump in that dump.
28 August 2008, on 9:33 pm
It is not a patriotic song, it is a prayer.
A similar situation happened to me at a Colorado Rockies game, only it wasn’t the cops it was the mob of fans. I canceled my season tickets and included a letter telling them why. Never heard back. But the Rockies have long been known as an overtly Christian team. One of their catchers after a hit, points his finger into the air, thanking his god. Alright with me if he would also give that god guy the finger when he grounds into a double play.
28 August 2008, on 10:00 pm
And so it begins… *dum-dum-DAAAH*
28 August 2008, on 10:49 pm
I’m speechless. This nonsense needs to stop.
28 August 2008, on 10:57 pm
Wonderful. And tonight I just noticed my dad picked up a copy of “Good Night and Good Luck,” featuring a similar dark era for America. This is disgusting.
29 August 2008, on 1:27 am
If that is truly a Yankee Stadium policy then I really hope this guy sues both the Yankess and the NYPD. This is just frickin ridiculous. I wish I lived in NY and had Yankees tickets, because I’d make a point of it to get up out of my seat every time they played that song. Sometimes I’d go to the bathroom, sometimes I’d get a drink and sometimes I’d just turn my back to the flag and scratch my balls.
This country is quickly turning into a fascist theocratic state.
29 August 2008, on 8:57 am
Chicken Girl, it started happening after 9/11, when they kept trotting out that otherwise average NYPD tenor to sing everywhere. Since then, it’s moved from ballpark to ballpark across the country- they do it here in Cincinnati but that just may be a last ditch effort at making the team not suck quite so much.
In this instance, however, I think it’s more a case of wrong guy- belligerent and apparently winning Red Sox fan- wrong cop- short-tempered Coulterphile- than policy. Much as I’m not a Cubs fan, I much preferred Harry Caray’s horrendous rendition of “Take Me Out To the Ballgame”(which makes no sense, considering you’re already at the ballgame and who’s supposed to buy you the peanuts and Cracker Jacks?) for the seventh-inning stretch. New York is still as latte-sipping, elitist blue state writ large as it ever was.
29 August 2008, on 9:01 am
What kind of fucked up country has the USA become? It started with such promise and look at it now. The democrats groveling on thier knees before invisible boogey-men, the party of Lincoln led by and idiot and a moron as his heir, and now you must stand through a religious song. I would have pissed all over Yankee stadium and given them something to arrest me for. I am sad. Poor America. My own Canada is just as fucked up…het we even have gawd mentioned in our fucking constitution …
29 August 2008, on 9:37 am
Hahaha… the Rockies, a religious team… the title won’t do. “Angels” and “Padres” have been taken. Hmm.
29 August 2008, on 9:40 am
Chicken Girl:
“Since when is it a “tradition” to sing God Bless America at the 7th inning stretch? What the hell happened to Take Me Out To The Ball Game?”
I guess that tradition died along with old Harry Caray of Chicago Cubs fame.
It’s more like…
“Take me out of the Ball Park”…?
Personally, I think I only went to two, maybe three baseball games as a kid. I never could muster much interest in the game; even though I tried. Football and basketball appealed to me WAY more. These days, you couldn’t drag me to ANY game!
Now, as to the “GBA” tune:
First…naturally…a little Wikipedia history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Bless_America
Second…a possible suggestion for those of you who DO go to the ball parks:
Perhaps just change a few lyrics when singing along…something like:
“Gob doesn’t even exist…He’s not above…and I’m quite sure…my bladder…
won’t feel right…til I run…for that door…
…From the mountains…to the prairies…to my jockeys (panties) drenched in piss (full of shit?)…
Who thought this bullshit up…I’m leaving…NOW…
You guys are fucking sheep…I won’t…be…back!”
Now…I love my native country, America, as much as the next person…but I’ve NEVER been a fan of the National Anthem; with its “Bombs bursting in air” lyric and borrowed melody, from a “popular British drinking song no less, written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a London social club…”The Anacreontic Song” (or “To Anacreon in Heaven”)”
Yikes!
[See Wikipedia]:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star-Spangled_Banner
It has to rank as one the most frequently butchered songs in all of…erm…”music”.
Yeah…I know…there’s Rosanne Barr’s infamous version. But…
Here’s another atrocious example (among many) on YouTube:
Now…Is it REALLY the…”WORST ANTHEM EVER”…?
Ummm…You decide?
And finally…
Remember those, anonymous, alternate lyrics that somehow EVERYONE somehow knows? In this case, to the “Star Spangled Banner”…
(”Bar Mangled Stammer”)?…
“Jose, can you see…
Any bedbugs on me…
If you do…pick a few…
And I’ll fry them for you!”
Yeah…enough already!…pardon my ‘Blasphemy’?
29 August 2008, on 9:52 am
Much as I’m not a Cubs fan, I much preferred Harry Caray’s horrendous rendition of “Take Me Out To the Ballgame”(which makes no sense, considering you’re already at the ballgame and who’s supposed to buy you the peanuts and Cracker Jacks?)
RDZ, I never understood that song either. Like you said, you are already there and wanting someone to buy you snacks? But it is better than summoning an imaginary being to bless an already rich country who got that way by forcefully taking it away from nearly defenseless natives.
Personally, I think I only went to two, maybe three baseball games as a kid. I never could muster much interest in the game; even though I tried.
ChuckA, I like going for the food. Otherwise it’s pretty damn boring. When we took our daughter when she was little she said “when are they going to stop playing catch and start playing baseball?” They DO do a lot more “playing catch” than batting.
Football and basketball appealed to me WAY more.
ChuckA, have you been to the new toilet bowl stadium yet? Looks like a gigantic metal bedpan to us.
29 August 2008, on 10:46 am
^”ChuckA, have you been to the new toilet bowl stadium yet? Looks like a gigantic metal bedpan to us.”
Ummm…You’re referring, I assume, to the “refurbished” Soldiers Field? I’ve passed by it quite a few times; and I think your description is quite accurate. The answer is no; like I said, I haven’t been inside a ball park of any kind since my high school days; which was the old Soldiers Field, circa 1956, come to think of it.
By the way, thanks for posting my comment…and here’s the (above) missing “GBA” YouTube link…
To wit:
“…Yeah…I know…there’s Rosanne Barr’s infamous version. But…
Here’s another atrocious example (among many) on YouTube:
Now…Is it REALLY the…”WORST ANTHEM EVER”…?
Ummm…You decide?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iINVptR_f4Y
29 August 2008, on 2:38 pm
Stardust?…I’m probably jumping the gun here; as I’m expecting you might have a separate Post in mind; but anyway…
Oy Vey?…I’m sure most of you have hoid the latest Rethuglican News:
“McCain chooses Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for V.P.”
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20080829/CVN.Veepstakes/
Yeah…McCain’s extremely lame attempt at attracting the (non-thinker) women’s vote:
Like, it’s going to fool all those women who really care about Women’s issues! [i.e...CHOICE!]
’snip’
Palin has a strong anti-abortion record, and her selection was praised warmly by social conservatives whose support McCain needs to prevail in the campaign for the White House.
“It’s an absolutely brilliant choice,” said Mathew Staver, dean of LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW. “This will absolutely energize McCain’s campaign and energize conservatives,” he predicted.
["HA!!! Isn't Liberty U. the official home of the "3000(?) year old dinosaur bone"?
More like, I'd say: "The home of the 21st Century "Young Earth Boneheads" Law School]
’snip’
With his pick, McCain passed over more prominent contenders like Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, as well as others such as former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, whose support for abortion rights might have sparked unrest at the convention that opens Monday in St. Paul, Minn.
To me, she looks just like the typical, Ultra-Conservative, “Stepford wife” Fundie!
I don’t know about you guys; but I’ll be sure to miss next weeks ultra-lame proceedings.
I must say, aside from the usual Gob ass-kissing, the Dems, with some rather marvelous speeches [ala the Clintons, et.al.] “pulled off” a WAY better than average Convention.
I also think Obama “hit one out of the park” in his acceptance speech.
Yeah…he couldn’t, however, leave off the manditory Gob stuff at the end!
No surprise RE that, of course!
Tangentially…
Speaking of “Speeches”…Chicago’s Mayor Daley popped up a few times on the Convention broadcast. He was in my (1962) Summer Quarter, Night School Speech course. I remember chatting with him by the Lewis Tower elevators, and thinking of his dad; and that he seemed rather shy. (How time change people!) He was in law school; I was a Liberal Arts Junior. My talk was on…of all things…Brass instrument mouthpieces! I don’t remember his talk, though.
Of course…I did a lot of “self medicating” in those daze!
30 August 2008, on 8:58 am
Aww, that makes me wish I had balls just so I could stand and scratch with you!
Is it too nasty to scratch my puss instead?
31 August 2008, on 11:21 am
What if the guy had the spurts? I would sue.
31 August 2008, on 3:48 pm
TAJ, very good point. I have a couple of family members who have IBS and when they gotta go, they gotta go NOW. And it’s very painful.
9 September 2008, on 6:45 am
9/11 wasn’t planned in a cave…The answer LIES in the BUSHes.