Chalk up another win to mandatory patriotism and blessings from above.
The most patriotic moments at Yankee Stadium can also be the most confining.
Seconds before “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America” are played, police officers, security guards and ushers turn their backs to the American flag in center field, stare at fans moving through the stands and ask them to stop. Across the stadium’s lower section, ushers stand every 20 feet to block the main aisle with chains.
Ever since the plane hijackings and subsequent atrocities in 2001, Major League Baseball has convinced home teams to play “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch. For fans of Richard Berry, this has been especially devastating, since the “unofficial national anthem” now steals the limelight from otherwise nauseating renditions of “Louie Louie”.
Howard J. Rubenstein, the spokesman for the Yankees’ principal owner, George Steinbrenner, said the policy was an expression of patriotism.
“Mr. Steinbrenner wanted to do all games to remind the fans about how important it is to honor our nation, our service members, those that died on Sept. 11 and those fighting for our nation,” Rubenstein said in a telephone interview.
Trost said Steinbrenner was presented with the fan complaints and agreed to a plan to restrict movement. 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.
There’s nothing like chaining people into their seats so we can delude ourselves that God somehow blesses our country and our patriotism. Let us substitute a few minutes of reverence for a meaningless song in lieu of a lifetime of critical thought and participation. It used to be that you could choose to not participate in such a nationalistic frenzy of God and country. Are people going to be forced to stand and take off their hats next or face expulsion from a game that used to be America’s pastime?