“Ladies and gentlemen, please stand for the singing of ‘God Bless America.'” So ordered the Fenway announcer last week during the seventh-inning stretch. Since when did stretching become mandatory? And why are men removing their hats and people putting their hands over their hearts for a song penned for a musical revue. This is not an anthem and should not be treated as such.
Written in 1918 by Irving Berlin — whose daughter described him as “not a religious person” — the song was revived in 1938 by Kate Smith who was looking for a peace anthem for an Armistice Day broadcast.
So how did we get the point where a song written by an agnostic humanist has become a moment for the mandatory display of patriotism? Turns out the “mandatory” part has been litigated. In 2009 a patron at Yankee Stadium was ejected by the NYPD for going to the bathroom during the song. The NYCLU got involved and in the settlement the Yankees agreed that people should be free to move about during the song.
“This settlement ensures that the new Yankee Stadium will be a place for baseball, not compelled patriotism,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said. “It is a victory for the freedom of expression – a core constitutional principle.”
Happily, this public test of patriotism is on the wane as the withdrawal of combat-troop in Iraq and Afghanistan proceeds. Stadiums are pulling it from the schedule; Fenway should follow suit.
The song itself is cloying and sentimental — Berlin thought it was maudlin and depressing, and Kate Smith came to loathe it. NESN always airs the melismatic amateur du jour screeching her way through “God Bless America” but then cuts away to commercial when the crowd launches into “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” I know which one I would rather hear.
The seventh-inning stretch is such a quintessentially American piece of silliness. Let’s get back to belting out “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and arguing about the lyrics. (Take me out to the park? Take me out to the crowd?)
I see I am not alone on this issue. Gersh Kuntzman recently wrote about this in the NY Daily News (6.30.16).
The song still embodies great things about America, but also our worst things: self-righteousness, forced piety, earnest self-reverence, foam.