When the embattled Ronan Tynan departed New York for Boston, many in New York wondered he would defect to the Red Sox and grace (or torture, depending upon your view of things) Fenway Park with his rendition of “God Bless America.” If The Boston Globe’s Kevin Cullen has his way, that’s exactly what Tynan will be doing come Opening Day when the Yanks are in town. Cullen profiled Tynan’s move up to Boston in the wake of fall from Yankee grace following a joke made at the expense of two of Tynan’s Jewish neighbors. While the tenor continues to insist that some of his best friends are Jewish and that his joke was not meant to be malicious, he had to leave the city after few wanted to fraternize with him. Whether he takes the mic at Fenway in three weeks or not, I can’t say I’ll miss him too much.
Tynan shippin’ up to Boston
When last we heard from Ronan Tynan, Will Leitch had profiled the troubled singer. Exiled from Yankee Stadium this fall after his anti-Semitic remarks became public, Tynan has since seen his public bookings dry up and his persona grow diminished in the eyes of his former fans.
The Times today checked in on Tynan and found that the one-time Yankee celebrity is moving up to the land of the enemy. He has sold his Upper East Side apartment and will be decamping for Boston shortly. Writes Corey Kilgannon:
He insists he has not given up on New York — he will keep a rented apartment here. Nor is he angry at the city. He said he was moving mainly for a change and because he had family and friends in Boston.
When pressed, however, he admits that life here has become strained: the barrage of angry e-mail messages and letters; the death threats; the surgeon who wrote saying he would let him die on the operating table, if Mr. Tynan were his patient; the prominent chef who steered him away from a table of customers because one of them was a Jewish man who refused to meet the singer.
“It hasn’t driven me out, because I love this city so much, but it has saddened me,” Mr. Tynan said in an interview this week at a friend’s apartment in Manhattan. “I’ve cried and I’ve laughed with New Yorkers, irrespective of creed or whether they’re Jewish or Catholic or Protestant.”
Tynan continues to claim that his remarks about the “Jewish ladies” were misconstrued and that he’s not an anti-Semite because he sang at an Anti-Defamation League. His remarks, still, were out of line.
When the news of his departure to New England popped up in the press this week, one publication wondered if he would come sing for the Red Sox. Tynan refused to speculate, but considering Red Sox Nation’s tolerance for anything Yankees, it’s hard to see them accepting him.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Mike Segar
The Misery Tenor
Will Leitch penned a piece for New York Magazine on the trials and tribulations of Ronan Tynan, who lost his gig singing “God Bless America” at Yankee home playoff games after making an anti-Semitic remark in October. Tynan, who was dubbed “The Misery Tenor” by his friends because he’s sung at so many funerals, still sings at Buffalo Sabres games but is trying to figure out what’s next.
The Yankees have no plans to bring Tynan back according to Leitch, meaning the seventh inning stretch at a bunch of Yankee home games just got a little quieter.
Tynan out after anti-Semitic remarks
Long-time Yankee Stadium guest and “God Bless America” singer Ronan Tynan will not be a part of the rest of the Yanks’ October run after making anti-Semitic remarks earlier this week. NBC New York broke the story earlier today:
The trouble began on Thursday when the 49-year-old Tynan bumped into a Halstead Property real estate agent showing an apartment on his floor to a potential buyer, a pediatrician from NYU Medical Center. The real estate agent said to the tenor, famous for his association with Yankees, “Don’t worry they are not Red Sox fans,” according to the apartment-hunter, Dr. Gabrielle Gold-von Simson.
To which Tynan replied, “I don’t care about that, as long as they are not Jewish,” Gabrielle Gold-von Simson told NBC New York. “Why is that?” asked a flabbergasted Gold-von Simson of the singer.
And Tynan responded that Jewish ladies had been looking at the apartment before and they were “scary,” according to Gold-von Simson. The singer now claims he was joking, but the good doctor didn’t see it that way. “I didn’t know him at all so how could I take it as a joke,” said Gold-von Simson.
How could anyone really take that as a joke? It’s blatantly anti-Semitic and not funny at all.
Meanwhile, Tynan attempted to apologize today but simply succeeded in putting his foot in his month. He tried to old “some of my best friends are Jewish” line and offered up a mea culpa. “It was stupid of me to be so callous, and I would never want to hurt anybody’s feelings,” Tynan said to NBC today. “It’s something misfortunate. I was too stupid with my mouth.”
The Yankees have unsurprisingly canceled Tynan’s scheduled singing of “God Bless America” tonight. Although Kevin Kaduk at Big League Stew can’t imagine a Bronx October without Tynan, I won’t miss him.
Behind the Music: Ronan Tynan
No, it’s not a VH1 special about the Yankees’ favorite Irish singer. It is instead a profile of Ronan Tynan in the Asbury Park Press. Tynan, performing today in Red Bank, is getting ready to release an album of his version of songs by U2, Eric Clapton and the Boss. It’s clearly just what the world needs. (Hat tip to BBTF.)