Having grown up in an American league town east of the Mississippi, as a baseball fan it is my sacred duty to hate the Yankees. This is even more so given how badly my hometown team (the Detroit Tigers) and my second favorite team (the Cleveland Indians) are doing this year. Thanks to the Yankee organization itself and the NYPD, I now have yet another reason to hate the Yankees (as if I needed one), thanks to Stupid Evil Bastard. The Yankees actually ejected a man from Yankee Stadium for wanting to go to the bathroom during the seventh innning stretch (which, I always thought, was the purpose of the seventh inning stretch anyway):
NEW YORK (CBS) â A Queens man is considering legal action against the New York Yankees after he was ejected from Tuesday night’s contest against the Boston Red Sox for trying to use the restroom during the playing of “God Bless America.”
During the patriotic 7th inning stretch at Yankee Stadium, nature called on Bradford Campeau-Laurion. When he tried to leave his seat during the traditional singing of God Bless America, however, he says he was stopped by a NYPD officer who said he’d have to wait until the song was done.
“I then said to him, ‘I don’t care about God Bless America. I just need to use the bathroom.’ As soon as I said that, he immediately pinned my arm behind my back,” Campeau-Laurion told CBS 2.
The 29-year-old says two officers pinned both of his arms behind his back and ejected him from the stadium.
“He shoved me out the front gate and told me get out of their country if I didn’t like it,” he said.
Not surprisingly, the police are claiming that Campeau-Laurion was drunk and disorderly, but his friend, a season ticket holder says the police are lying, and Campeau-Laurion says he only had two beers. This puts Campeau-Laurion in a bad position, given that it’s his word against the cops, and apparently his friend won’t identify himself. In any case, keeping people from leaving the stands during the singing of God Bless America is apparently Yankee Stadium policy:
Campeau-Laurion says he didn’t know the Yankees had a rule restricting movement in the stands during the playing of God Bless America. The rule is enforced by ushers, stadium security and the NYPD.
The New York Civil Liberties Union says, however, that New York’s finest crossed the line.
“Because they are enforcing a rule of that imposes political correctness through refusing to let somebody go to bathroom while a patriotic song is playing, that violates Constitutional rights,” said Donna Lieberman, a spokesperson for the NYCLU.
So, among all the other reasons to hate the Yankees, we can hate them because they have a rule that says you can’t leave the stands during the singing of a patriotic and religious song. I wonder if he was wearing a Boston Red Sox cap; having been to Yankee Stadium a couple of times, I know the reaction that the fans and ushers have towards Red Sox fans. Selective enforcement or not, the rule itself is rotten to the core. If I need to get up and use the bathroom during the seventh inning stretch at Yankee Stadium (or any other baseball stadium, for that matter), there’s no reason I shouldn’t be allowed to.
