You are dead to me. You are a collection of Fredos. The cock has crowed, you pathetic sniveling jerks.
The team I have rooted for since 1965, when I first visited the House that Ruth Built, where I hawked peanuts and ice cream a lifetime ago, watched countless games (Guidry striking out 18!), has gotten so woke and decided to abandon playing (during the Seventh-Inning-Stretch) Kate Smith’s iconic rendition of Irving Berlin’s God Bless America.
The 1938 radio premier of Smith singing the song can be heard here.
Why? Per the Daily Mail, the Yankees, “dropped the song after becoming aware of the late Smith’s racially insensitive songs, with names like ‘Pickaninny Heaven’ and ‘That’s Why Darkies Were Born.’” Another charge: Smith (who died in 1986) endorsed a “mammy” doll in the late 1930s. An unnamed spokesman said “The Yankees take social, racial, and cultural insensitivities very seriously. And while no final conclusions have been made, we are erring on the side of sensitivity.”
No, it’s on the side of stupidity. As stupid: The Philadelphia Flyers, who initiated the custom of playing Smith’s tune during games, announced they too were kyboshing Kate.
What repulsive people, gnats compared to how truly great and American this lady was. Kate Smith was more than just a crooner — who now stands judged and convicted of living when she lived. From her New York Times obituary:
At the height of her career, during World War II, she repeatedly was named one of the three or four most popular women in America. No single show-business figure even approached her as a seller of War Bonds during World War II. In one 18-hour stint on the CBS radio network, Miss Smith sold $107 million worth of war bonds, which were issued by the United States Government to finance the war effort. Her total for a series of marathon broadcasts was over $600 million.
And when she wasn’t raising the dough to crush fascism, Smith was visiting the soldiers: “. . . she traveled nearly 520,000 miles to entertain American troops.” That’s the equivalent of 130 times around the globe. While the Yankees were playing baseball and getting loaded after the game.
In 1982 Ronald Reagan presented Kate Smith with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Watch the ceremony here.
She deserved it. What the Yankees deserve is a boycott. George Steinbrenner, your sons ain’t you.