I would like to add “Pan, bless America…”
Also: “Moses, bless America”
Further: “Og, Bless America”
And: “Bob, bless America”
Did I miss anyone? After all I don’t expect Fox to be respectful of religious freedom.
SSG Schwartz
Personally, I think “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” is the One True 7th Inning Stretch song, but what the hell is this about “religious freedom”?
As long as they play “Sweet Caroline” in the 8th, I’m fine.
You missed Allah. Expect a fatwa shortly.
Good point…Fox will really be in deep when they start hearing from those uppity Moses-worshippers.
When are they playing YMCA these days? About the middle of the fifth?
I don’t think they do anymore. I didn’t hear it at a game earlier this year.
Dude.
Seriously.
If you think “God Bless America” is FOX’s doing, then I hope you have a Picasso or two, or perhaps an indoor pool, or maybe a bar and a pool room to increase the property value of the rock underneath which you are living.
The vast majority of baseball fans are unoffended, and, in fact, inspired, by “God Bless America.” It’s got God in it. And America. Most people who like baseball like God and America.
If you’re not into God, America, or either of them, or both of them, but you like baseball, you’re probably still well aware that, come the stretch, you’re gonna get you some “God Bless America.” So you can switch channels.
Or, you could sit there, be offended, and complain. Perhaps you could document your complaint somehow, perhaps in the form of a strongly worded e-mail or letter to the editor, or perhaps a phone call to a telephone number set up for the purpose of fielding complaints.
I doubt, however, that your complaint, when weighed against either the indifference or hearty approval, or both of them, of the VAST majority of baseball fans will, as they say in the business, “hold water.”
You’re unlikely to affect advertising revenue. Even if you were to form a bloc of like-minded people, all of whom complained, you would still be unlikely to have enough support to make a difference.
Therefore, I hope that your anger is well-vented here. Because this rant, and any subsequent post from whatever shrill atheist on the SDMB also watches sports and would open a sports-related thread (an unlikely confluence) is all the validation you’re likely to get.
If you want to bitch about FOX that’s one thing, but don’t go blaming them for stuff that ain’t their doing: as Happy Scrappy Hero Pup mentioned, it’s a baseball thing.
I’m agnostic, and of the somewhat adamant belief that “God” and “America” have nothing to do with each other. I support removing “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, I’m against the Ten Commandments being displayed in courhouses, I don’t think the Senate session should open with a prayer (even a Hindu one), etc. But I’m also a Washington Nationals season ticket holder, so far this season I’ve been to 31 of 46 home games, and the occasional “God Bless America” during the 7th-inning stretch doesn’t bother me one bit. I don’t sing along with it like I do the national anthem, but hearing it doesn’t fill me with righteous indignation or anything. When it’s over I clap like everyone else, and then I sing along to “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” (there isn’t always someone around to sing “God Bless America,” but we always sing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”).
They play this crappy song at every Yankees home game. With two outs in the top of the 7th, it is time for me to make a trip to the little boys’ room. Hate when the inning ends on a double play.
YMCA is usually in the 5th when the grounds keepers groom the field. You can see that they’ve gotten tired of their little bit of performance art.
Yankees don’t do Sweet Caroline, but they do have Cotton-Eyed Joe, and “New York, New York” at the end (usually Frank Sinatra’s version, but I’ve occasionally heard others).
The phrase has always struck a sense of self-righteousness with me.
Whenever I hear God Bless America I always imagine the next line to be and fuck everyone else!
Hrmm, all I remember is some chick singing “New York, New York”…
-Telemark, who at noon today won front row tickets to tonight’s Red Sox game. I expect to hear “Dirty Water” by the Standells.
It would be nice if they’d at least show them singing “O Canada.” That’s actually the national anthem of a country involved in Major League Baseball, which is more than can be said of “God Bless America.”
Exactly the reason I despise this song.
That’s all I’m asking. Oh, and “one nation, under Bob”. And maybe “In Bob we trust”
That’s 'cause you’re overanalyzing it. It’s patriotic sentimentality, not a national expression of our foreign policy.
MLB may (rightly) welcome Candians, and they did have nice big Canadian flag out on the field next to the American one, but the game was played in the States – and mostly by “Middle” Americans. We don’t need to hear your stinkin’ anthem. 
If it’s any consolation, Irving Berlin wrote GBA, so at least it’s a Jewish God they’re singing about. 
Happy Scrappy Hero, and Misnomer, no I did not this to be taken seriously. I think this post sums up what I was trying to say:
I know Fox Sports did not get exclusive use of the song. I was making a weak I understand that the country was founded on religious values, but could we, for once, at a baseball game sing “Todd Bless America” (no offense Bob). I don’t think Irving Berlin will mind too much. Or if the home team is losing going into the seventh inning stretch, how about “Willie Lowman Bless America”
SSG Schwartz
They sing “O Canada” before games involving the Blue Jays (and once upon a time, the Expos).
As far as wanting equal time, your request is… wanting.
And as for the people who imply a “fuck everybody else” line after"GBA," you’re either trying waaaay too hard to be offended, or your ACL and MCL are too tight.
Let it go, dude. You got nothin’ here.
It’s got nothing to do with Fox, or with the founding of our nation. It’s got everything to to with George Steinbrenner wanting to do something after 9/11 and dragooning Ronan Tynan into it, and now it’s caught on because most baseball fans love either God or America or Both. It’s on the team who plays in the home stadium to decide what happens in the stretch, not Fox sports.
Your anger is unfounded and misplaced. Don’t let that keep you from being shrill, of course, just make sure you know that.
[sub]as a loyal New Jersey Devils fan, I feel obligated to confess that, when drunk, I can sing “O Canada” in its entirety. Sober, I can’t get past “true patriots somethin’ somethin’ somethin’.”[/sub]
I don’t think Pan goes around blessing much of anything. He was seriously freaky in that movie about his labyrinth.