That woman has a very nice voice. However, there is nothing, nothing in sports, or possibly life I hate more than the false patriotism of God Bless America at a baseball game. Just sing Take Me out to the Ballgame, have a good time, and get on with it. We sing the National Anthem before the game, we don't need a goddamned mid game break to show our non-spontaneous American pride.

Link (A better version)

That woman has a very nice voice. However, there is nothing, nothing in sports, or possibly life I hate more than the false patriotism of God Bless America at a baseball game. Just sing Take Me out to the Ballgame, have a good time, and get on with it. We sing the National Anthem before the game, we don't need a goddamned mid game break to show our non-spontaneous American pride.

HEAR! HEAR!

There is nothing I hate more in life than a silly goddamned song designed to sell peanuts and crackerjack.

mitchcumstein1: That woman has a very nice voice. However, there is nothing, nothing in sports, or possibly life I hate more than the false patriotism of God Bless America at a baseball game. Just sing Take Me out to the Ballgame, have a good time, and get on with it. We sing the National Anthem before the game, we don't need a goddamned mid game break to show our non-spontaneous American pride.

After the attacks, we had a comraderie and outpouring of international support unlike any in recent memory. Sure, you can't keep that intensity up forever, but post-attack events (war, political squabbles/election) squandered a lot of the goodwill we enjoyed. I am reminded of this every time I hear some hollow-hearted rendition of this at a ballgame.

The ultimate irony is that Yankee Stadium security guards make you stand respectfully and not leave your section while the god damned song's playing. It was bad enough when the Flyers played this thing endlessly. When are we going to re-build the Trade Centers so they can knock this crap off?

Maybe if they threw in a Haka afterward.

mr_a: There is nothing I hate more in life than a silly goddamned song designed to sell peanuts and crackerjack.

I don't care if you ever come back!

plywoodjungle: Oh dear god, please stop allowing these "I videotaped my television screen" videos to go green.

He just wanted to show the clarity of his HDTV by using his SD camcorder via YouTube...

The only way this could be worse is to run it through Autotune, and change it to Sepia tone with false 16mm scratch effects.

And perhaps upside down.

Earguy: mitchcumstein1: That woman has a very nice voice. However, there is nothing, nothing in sports, or possibly life I hate more than the false patriotism of God Bless America at a baseball game. Just sing Take Me out to the Ballgame, have a good time, and get on with it. We sing the National Anthem before the game, we don't need a goddamned mid game break to show our non-spontaneous American pride.

After the attacks, we had a comraderie and outpouring of international support unlike any in recent memory. Sure, you can't keep that intensity up forever, but post-attack events (war, political squabbles/election) squandered a lot of the goodwill we enjoyed. I am reminded of this every time I hear some hollow-hearted rendition of this at a ballgame.

It's one of those things where once you start doing it there is no really graceful way to stop that won't cause controversy.

/What do they do in Toronto?

In the beginning (especially in the better quality version that mr_a linked to), you can distinctly hear a loud angry man yelling "Hats off!" several times. Now, I'm all for respecting the flag and my country, but being a douche about it makes me want to whack you with a rolled up copy of the Constitution.

Also, don't expect me to sing along. The song is literally a sung prayer, and a pretentious one at that.

mitchcumstein1: Just sing Take Me out to the Ballgame, have a good time, and get on with it. We sing the National Anthem before the game, we don't need a goddamned mid game break to show our non-spontaneous American pride.

Agreed. I'm glad to see some singers out there don't do that pitch-wavering on every note.

mitchcumstein1: We sing the National Anthem before the game.

I hear more people singing along to God Bless America than I ever hear singing the National Anthem. I wish people did 'sing' the national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner is amazing when sung by a crowd. Instead the stadiums have some big name artist do it, and everyone just listens. What I would rather have the stadiums play a pre-recorded version preceded by an announcement: "And now, please stand, removed your hats, and sing along to our national anthem."

dodald: I wish people did 'sing' the national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner is amazing when sung by a crowd. Instead the stadiums have some big name artist do it, and everyone just listens.

Whenever we had a soloist singing the Anthem, my college band director would sing the harmony, almost absent-mindedly. If they had a group/chorus singing, he would switch to humming the brass fanfare (begins with "And the rockets' red glare").

It was slightly amusing, but also sort of patriotic.