After mercifully disappearing for the first nine games of the season that song was back Saturday night. Lee Greenwood, I guess it is. I'll take the blame (see this if you need any further explanation), because from here on out I've decided that I'll take the blame for everything that goes wrong this year.
I sure as hell can't come up with any other explanation for the song's reemergence that makes a lick of sense. Unless this Lee Greenwood character is somehow related to Hal Greenwood who, though a convicted felon, has old ties to the Twins through his days at the helm of Midwest Federal.
And, look, I've got nothing against America, at least as a vague concept governed by a constitution that, though generally excellent, nonetheless failed to provide adequate protection against bad taste. If you're dead set on turning the seventh-inning stretch into an exercise in patriotic indoctrination, though, there are certainly classier ways to go about it. There are surely better songs about America, songs that aren't the work of bottom feeders like Lee Greenwood. Someone in the comments below took exception to my criticism of that jingoistic piece of herd trash on the grounds that America is at war. All the more reason, I say, to find offensive the spectacle of a bunch of safe, well-fed yahoos making merry at a sporting event and singing along with a crass ditty that could have been written by a computer program at the Pentagon.
Okay, that's all I'm going to say about that. Now I'd like to bitch about Bartolo Colon, if I could, a guy I regard as one of the more unsightly specimens ever to squeeze himself into a Major League baseball uniform. I can't stand to watch the man, who, as he demonstrated today, is capable of pitching performances that are almost as nasty as he looks (or, as he showed against the Yankees in his last start, as ugly). Colon looks like the bastard spawn of Harvey Weinstein and Andre the Giant's fat little sister.
As much as I might loathe the sight of Colon, I have to admit he was pretty masterful today, painting the corners and getting the Twins to beat the ball into the rug all day long. He had to be masterful, of course, to beat Johan Santana. Santana was pretty damn good himself. Eight innings, two hits, two homeruns. There's no shame at all in giving up a solo shot to Vladimir Guerrero, but Jose Molina? You've got to keep Jose Molina in the yard, and that shouldn't be a terribly tall order --the guy had five career homers before today, for crying out loud.
Oh well. It was a pretty good game, and a good series. It is, though, a dirty rotten shame that Shrek had to be the guy to put an end to Santana's streak.
Come on, man, give me a little credit here. I could throw a porkchop past a wolf. Seriously, I LOVE that song, I just don't want my home enjoyment of it to be ruined by overexposure at the ballpark. Nothing makes me shake my white American ass quite like good ol' Hal Greenwood. Or whatever his name is.
Well, the fact that Greenwood has performed that song live at every Republican National convention (including the avowedly jingoistic 1992 convention) since it was released in the mid-1980s should tell people that it ain't just about the good 'ol USA. It's about US and them, and if you ain't US, then you're them (someone who doesn't like to hang out at Republican National conventions). Lee Greenwood IS jingoistic - he takes fees to perform that song at Republican fundraisers where he denounces Democrats.
Now, given, Paul Simon and Barbara Streisand have an unfortunate tendency to perform at Democratic gatherings. But they aren't singing about patriotism. So please spare us all the bullshit about how this is just about feeling good about America. From the get go, this song was about how some people are more American than others.
As for Zellar - I think you preserved the non-partisanship of your baseball blog quite nicely. But don't think you fooled anybody about what you really think of the shitty song.
Reading Peter's post just makes me sad. This song has somehow been tarred (?) by association with Bush and a pro-war stance? My oh my. So many folks are overly politically sensitive these days...again, I have no way of knowing this, but I seriously doubt most of the folks that stand and sing to that song feel that way. I don't think they believe one side has a monopoly on patriotism or love of country or whatever you think that song represents. And I don't think so either.
I feel compelled to join in on the fracas. Having looked at the lyrics to "God Bless the U.S.A.", I would have to say that, on the surface, this song does not appear to be jingoistic, or pro-Bush, etc. However, I think you can't ignore the fact that "God Bless the U.S.A." has been used over the years as a right-wing, pro-war anthem. I guess I would say that for this person, who does not support the Iraqi war or the current President, this is an intrusion because the song is politically charged. The Star Spangled Banner and Take Me Out to the Ballgame are not.
The Minnesota Twins have every right to play Lee Greenwood to their heart's content, just as Brad has every right to cringe and wish ill-will upon them for doing so. (I would be curious to see some actual numbers as to whether or not people appreciate that song as well).
As for myself, I've sat during Lee Greenwood and heard comments. The naysayers have that right. "God Bless the U.S.A" is a partisan anthem, and I just keep wondering if it's too much to ask that we leave the politics outside the Dome.
Once again I appreciate your comment Brad, and with regards to `We Are The World' ---well, I agree wholeheartedly. Can you even imagine? Anyway, yeah, I like Take Me Out Too and that's well and good, but I think you are on to something when you talk about Iraq (we disagree there, but lets leave that aside).
Whenever this country puts troops in the field, rightly or wrongly, there is an impulse here to support them and the nation that Lincoln called `the last best hope for mankind on Earth'. Hell, people didn't support the Civil War or WW1 or 2 either, uniformly, but the song simply reminds us to remember those that fell for us. I think it's a worthy sentiment, and most fans seem to agree, given the reaction I see. Would you pull the song given it's popularity with the fans?
Thanks again Brad for the blog and your thoughtful comments.
Jon,
I *am* a well-fed, safe yahoo, no question about it, and from a blue-collar family and a slaughterhouse town to boot, so class doesn't enter into it, unless you want to point out that the people who can't actually afford to attend games --not to mention the overwhelming majority of people in the military-- aren't the ones who are waving their beers and singing along with what strikes me as, more than anything else, a lousy song. If they'd play "This Land is Your Land" I'd be happy as a clam. Hell, there are all sorts of better songs about what it means to be an American. How about "Born in the USA"? Or "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World"?
Also, I most certainly am not one of those 'chickens have come home to roost' people, but we're a long ways from 9-11, and Iraq --as I believe has been conclusively proven-- is even further away than we are.
Ultimately my single greatest objection is that I go to a lot of games, and I've probably now heard that song well over 100 times. If they played "We Are the World" every night for three seasons I'd be just as aggrieved.
I actually find the whole thing amusing as well as irritating, but, at the same time, baseball tradition is important to me. I say get everybody on their feet, sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame," and get the hell on with the game.
Rieux---`where at least I know I'm free' is jingoistic? Wow. I guess it's true, we HAVE lost the language.
With regards to sitting during the Greenwood song, I've seen people around me sit during the national anthem and have never seen them get any trouble---certainly not from me. Have you? Anyway, to say you are not free because someone looks askance at you for not standing is a bit of a stretch. Freedom means something else altogether in this context. There I go with words again.
Brad---I appreciate your comment and enjoy your blog. This is just fascinating to me as this has really seemed to touch a nerve with you and I can't see why. It's not just the music, it's the sentiment, right? Could it be that it's a pro-American song, and that's just not cool? We had it coming and all that?
As to the crass timing, I recall that song being played for quite awhile, and if it came back after the Towers fell then so be it. I didn't see it as crass timing when people put their flags out on 9/12/01.
I really got the impression after you wrote the `well-fed, safe yahoos/Pentagon' line that this was a class warfare issue with you. Which is cool, it's your blog, and you can say whatever you want. In fact, that's one thing the song celebrates---right?
Er, how about "Where at least I know I'm free"?
Because all of those other countries (you know, like the ones several of our players come from--Venezuela, Canada, Mexico) are totalitarian dictatorships, of course.
The song, like jingoist silliness generally, portrays hollering "Whoo-ee, we's great!" as a fantastic act of courage. Greenwood to the contrary, it doesn't actually take guts to "stand up" and agree in that sentiment with a mob.
What makes some of us proud to be Americans is that our country (and freedom generally) is *not* supposed to be about precisely the kind of craptacular lock-step patriotism that the Greenwood ritual represents.
If you don't believe me, try staying seated during "Proud" next time they play it during the stretch. See how "free" its fans want to let their fellow citizens be.
Jon,
I'll conceed that the song is not precisely jingoistic in so far as there's nothing blatantly militaristic about the lyrics. I would, however, argue that its crass timing and obvious implications --or perhaps the knee-jerk reaction it seems to inspire in so many-- at least takes it into the territory of "blustery patriotism," which is one definition of jingoistic in my admittedly very old Oxford unabridged.
Now you've done it. My week is ruined. You asked for the blame, and I'm in search of a victim, so there you go. Lee Greenwood? Lee Greenwood? You know, I have to say, I would almost--almost--rather they play the bastard Greenwood every game, instead of teasing us that he isn't going to foul up "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". Even worse, for me, is the fact that my mind has now begun to meld the two, in the same way that I know the Beatles "Good Morning" will flow into the "Sgt. Pepper's" reprise and then to "A Day in the Life". Now Greenwood haunts it in Detroit, in Kansas City, and even twice, in Los Angeles, where they play two verses of baseball's national anthem.
I beg of you, Brad, do what you can to rid us of this plague. Wear the Nancy and Sluggo shirt. Vote Republican. Squirt mustard on Sid Hartman. Please. I can't stand this any more.
Brad---I'm the jingoist who commented. As I said I'm not a fan of the Greenwood song as a piece of music, but I can't help but ask a question. Get a print out of the lyrics and tell me---what is jingoistic about this song?