HORNS AND TAILS
Blessing in Disguise: Last year, the Twins complained about Ronan Tynan’s long renditions of “God Bless America” following the seventh inning of playoff games at Yankee Stadium. No noise from the Twins on that topic this year, but there should be.
The delay caused by the production can amount to 20 minutes or more, which is an unreasonable interruption in the progression of a game. In Game One, the Twins’ ace Johan Santana went into a temporary funk after this planned delay on the part of the Yankees, throwing several uncharacteristically-poor pitches (he bounced one, and then almost threw one over his catcher’s head) before giving up a near HR to Ruben Sierra.
“God Bless America” is a great song, too great to be used as an “ice” tactic in a sporting event. If it’s crucial to the Yankee Stadium experience, let’s hear it at the start or the conclusion of the game. Alternatively, let’s have the Fenway Park crew wheel out replicas of the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver and reenact the Boston Tea Party anytime it appears the Yankees are gathering momentum. No, wait. That would be ludicrous, wouldn’t it?