Sunday, June 19, 2005

Take Us Back to the Ballgame...

After 9/11, many (if not all) major league baseball teams decided to substitute "G-d Bless America" for "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch. It was, as we all know, a time of both great fear and great patriotism, and I, for one, saw the switch as an important method of conveying our mutual strength, pride and fortitude in the face of the greatest threat to our nation since Pearl Harbor.

Here in Chicago - at least at Wrigley Field - we switched back to the traditional "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" a few years ago. I don't remember when, exactly, probably because I didn't notice. I also don't remember feeling upset by it. Either way, the days of all of us wearing our flag and our American hearts on our sleeves have passed. I imagine that, like me, most of us who were so loudly and fiercely patriotic remain as committed to this nation today as we were in September 2001 - it's just that almost four years have passed, and to some extent we've gotten the heavy jingoism out of our system.

So I was a little surprised when, watching the Cubs-Yankees game this afternoon, I heard "G-d Bless America" in the middle of the seventh. There's nothing wrong with this, of course, and yet I can't help but wonder if maybe it's time for the Yankees to make their returning to 7th Inning Stretch normalcy. Maybe it's different because it's New York, because the attacks hit there harder than anywhere else. That's fair. But I think it's also fair to say that what I labeled as "heavy jingoism" existed in part as our first reaction to the terrible events of 9/11, and that it subsided as we became more familiar with the post-9/11 world and better able to objectively analyze the events of the day. If that's true, then maybe the Yankees (and whichever teams are following suit) are holding us back?

7 comments:

Hitman said...

Let me add, in a postscript, that this post is not intended to be another in our popular "New York sucks" series. I use the Yankees as my example only because it was a game at Yankee Stadium that drew attention to this trend.

Mighty Mike said...

While I typically am loathe to agree with anything Hart writes, thinks, hums, etc I agree with him here on almost everything. I, echoing the words of the late great Warren G Harding, would like "a return to normalcy" when it comes to the 7th inning stretch. However I differ in that I do not lay the blame of the lack of popcorn or CrackerJacks at the floor of individual ball clubs My guess is that Wrigley is atypical of what goes on at most ballparks in terms of their choice of song. I would surmise this tends to reflect a general fear of upsetting specific interest groups or demographics that still rally around jingoistic symbolism rather than ball club owners having a specific agenda.

MJ said...

I'd agree with Mike in that I think the team owners themselves are not trying to push any political ideas across. They're merely responding to the desires of their customers who haven't yet excercised their market power against singing "God Bless America" during the 7th inning.

Also, for the record, the Yanks play both "God Bless America" and "Take Me Out..." during the 7th inning stretch, as well as the AEPi initiation-week favorite, "Cotton Eye Joe." We've got the longest 7th inning stretch in the game from what I understand.

Gutsy Goldberg said...

"Where did you come from? Where did you go?..."
I think that's going to be in my head now all day. Is Cotton Eye Joe part of AePi hell week?

MJ said...

Yes, AEPi has/had a tradition of playing unbearable music on repeat for hell week. It was "Cotton Eye Joe" for at least one of those years I was there although I know that "Macarena" and some song about being a Barbie girl in a Barbie world were also the choice in some years.

You know it's a good hazing method when you read that the US Army does the same thing at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. Not that I endorse torture or anything but it's nice to know that our military is borrowing liberaly from their college experience. I wonder if the army does moon-shine...

B. Hutchens said...

Or forcing people to look at Helpern's feet.

MJ said...

Now that was hazing. That kid smelled worse than any other person that went through hell week. He absolutely made me want to retch every time I was within 100 yards of him during that 7 day period.