Baseball broadcaster slams national anthem antics

With Thursday marking the Fourth of July, members of the New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds took their patriotism to the next level with a national anthem standoff.

Not everybody, however, was a fan of their efforts.

Taking to X on Friday, New York Mets radio broadcaster Howie Rose took issue with players from the Yankees and Reds for participating in a standoff during — and well after — the playing of the national anthem before their holiday matinee matchup. For those who missed it, New York’s Cody Poteet, Ian Hamilton and Luis Gil and Cincinnati’s Graham Ashcraft and Carson Spiers stood outside their respective dugouts for more than five minutes, refusing to leave the field until the other side did.

Ashcraft proved to be the last man standing. Rose, however, was less than impressed.

“Am I hopelessly out of touch or is this nothing more than a juvenile, selfish, meaningless, irrelevant and frankly embarrassing exercise in stupidity?” Rose wrote on X, reposting a clip of the showdown. “Who comes to see this garbage? I suppose it’s a rhetorical question. I will see myself out.”

While there has been an increase in national anthem standoffs in recent years — some of which even resulted in players being ejected — it’s not necessarily something that’s a common occurrence. And although there might have been some showmanship in the actions of the Reds and Yankees’ players on Thursday, if there was ever a day in which a national anthem would be appropriate, it’s the Fourth of July.

Ultimately, the response from the 70-year-old Rose — who recently celebrated his 50th year in broadcasting — seems like an overreaction, but to each his own. It does, however, leave us hopeful that the Mets will soon participate in a standoff of their own, if only so we can see how Rose reacts.

[ Howie Rose on X ]

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