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Thursday, November 5, 2015

The best patriotism money can buy

The Yankees love to roll out the flag.

Fine. No problem. I'm good with that.

If they've ever charged the taxpayers to do it, well, Hal should be stuffed in a parachute and dropped into Syria.

In recent years, on-field flag rollouts and other ceremonies saluting military personnel have become commonplace at National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and Major League Soccer games around the country. The majority of the contracts analyzed in the report — 72 of 122 — showed that the Department of Defense paid for the tributes that included national anthem performances, ceremonial first pitches, puck drops, color guard presentations and enlistment ceremonies.

This scandal is pungent with the stench of the NFL. But it needs to piss off every fan of every sports team whose billionaire owner - yep, that's Billionaire with a B - ever took one thin penny in exchange for basking in their stars-and-striped pajamas. "Paid patriotism"... what a concept.

No word on whether the Yankees take part in this. For whatever it's worth, the claim is that pro team owners - giants of morality that they are - are "unaware" of this. (What a crock! The story says the NY Jets received $327,000 for their paid patriotism. The owner is unaware of a third of a million dollars?) What wonderful, loyal, true blue Americans they are!) Somehow, the Pentagon is actually trying to spare these morality midgets the embarrassment of being outed?

More than a third of the contracts highlighted in the report were not included in a list provided by the Pentagon, the senators said. Two-thirds of the contracts found in their own investigation or reported by the Department of Defense, they said, contained some form of “paid patriotism.”

Listen: I hate "holier than thou" bloggers, who pick out something obscure and take a big moral stance, pretending to have principles. Make no mistake: This site has no principles, other than to root for the Yankees. But goddammot, I can't remember when a story has pissed me off more. If the Yankees are involved in this... if every time in the seventh inning, when they bring out the good veteran and encourage everyone to sing "God Bless America"... if Hal is taking money to do it...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

YANKS JUST SOLD CHRIS MARTIN TO A JAPANESE TEAM FOR $750,000... (I'M CONFUSED WHY THEY WOULD WANT HIM), BUT THAT MEANS BETWEEN THAT SALE AND THE "PAID PATRIOTISM" MONEY, HAL AND THE YANKS JUST MADE OVER 1 MILLION DOLLARS WITHOUT BARELY LIFTING A FINGER!.........GREAT!...LOVE IT!...MADE MY DAY!.........NOW..............GO GET SOME FUCKING PLAYERS THAT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR THIS TEAM!!!! STOP WITH THE "JEFF SAMARDJIA TYPES", AND BRING HOME A DIFFERENCE MAKER!..DON'T MAKE THE FANS SUFFER ANOTHER YEAR!...THE BIG CONTRACTS WILL BE COMING OFF THE BOOKS SOON ENOUGH!... DO YOU THINK YOUR PAYROLL IS EVER GOING TO BE $150-$170 MILLION? THAT CAN NEVER HAPPEN IF YOU WANT TO FINISH ABOVE 4TH PLACE...TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT AT DAVID PRICE OR ZACK GREINKE!!!! DON'T BE A CHEAP SCUMBAG HAL!

Tom said...

Hey, how 'bout Howie Kendricks?

jdrny said...

Rolling out the flag stuff, enough already.

Couldn't help noticing how much fun the Mets fans were having singing "Take me out to the ball game" & Billie Joel's Piano Man rather than Kate Smith. Ugh. How boring.

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