Between The Lines -- Welcome To Yankee Stadium: Fans Boo Canadian Anthem

NEW YORK - The pregame ceremonies were actually a group obscenity - 40,000 New York Yankees fans booing the Canadian national anthem. It wasn't just a pocket or 10 or 15 fools showing their contempt, either.

As the Yankees began their biggest August series in a decade last night, an entire Yankee Stadium drowned out Robert Merrill as he sang "O Canada." One Yankee official closed his eyes, shook his head and said, "We were totally embarrassed" by the incident.

It only got worse for the Yankees, who were outplayed by the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-0, falling two games out of first place. The ballpark had a reckless, hostile feel to it, fueled in part by a first-inning meltdown. With runners on first and third and none out against Toronto starter Todd Stottlemyre, Don Mattingly's fly ball to left turned into a double play at the plate, and after that the Yankees - and their fans - were history.

By the ninth inning, fans were throwing bottles, battery packs and even bats at Joe Carter in right field. The game came to a virtual halt moments later as fistfights in the right-field bleachers were so heated, undermanned security guards were unable to control the violence.

When Yankee owner George Steinbrenner finally moves his Yankees to New Jersey, maybe he should consider a steel netting around the new playing field. It works in redneck bars, protecting the band from drunks who make beer bottles their weapon of choice. Why not in a ballpark where Robert Merrill was drowned out trying to sing another country's anthem?

Merrill, in fact, returned to the dugout afterward and told one player, "This is the first time I've ever been booed here." The fans weren't booing him, only Canada, as if this were some Olympic event.

Of course, there isn't a single Canadian citizen on the Blue Jays' roster, but that didn't stop Devon White from saying, "We took it as a slap in the face.

"We represent the Blue Jays, and the Blue Jays represent Canada. What the fans did was wrong," White said. He shook his head. "But that's New York and we wouldn't expect anything less. I'm from New York myself and people in the stands are always talking trash to me. I just wave at 'em, don't let 'em bother me. I know those are the same people after the game who ask me, `Can we have your autograph?' "

Said Toronto's Robby Alomar: "I've never, ever seen the Canadian anthem booed like that in any other city. It shows no respect. When we play at home, the Canadian people don't boo the American anthem. Maybe this is all because of the pennant race or something, but this is why a lot of guys are scared to ever come to New York (as free agents.)"

Said Carter: "I was totally embarrassed to be from the United States."

The Yankees themselves lowered their heads in embarrassment. Danny Tartabull said, "It may not be our anthem, but it's still an anthem. I think some kind of respect needs to be paid towards it."

Jim Abbott didn't hear the fans, spending the final moments before his first pitch in the clubhouse. But when told of the booing, Abbott's lips tightened. "Are you kidding me?" he asked.

In the manager's office, the Yankees' Buck Showalter waited nearly a half-minute before forming an answer. He was angered by the incident, wondering what it is that makes Yankee fans so hyper. Maybe Alomar's right: This is the first pennant race of the '90s in the Bronx. People get a little crazy, suspend their use of logic, hoping an insult or two will somehow help their Yankees.

Still, Showalter said finally, "There's better ways to show your support than that."

The fistfights in the stands offered even a darker hint of September - not like the one the Yankees imagine, full of baseball drama. If Rickey Henderson makes the Blue Jays invincible, the frustration will run high at Yankee Stadium next month. And that's the breeding ground for a thrown punch.

As Ed Sprague started a game-ending 5-4-3 double play on Mike Gallego in the ninth inning, security guards behind the Blue Jays' dugout were desperately trying to contain a brawl that was close to spilling onto the field.

The incident was serious for nearly every Blue Jay player to stand on the top step of the dugout, shocked. Everyone except White, who said, "I've been coming to New York for eight years, and if there isn't a fight in Yankee Stadium, I wonder if something's wrong. In that ninth inning, I was telling everyone, `Come on, let's play the game. There's nothing unusual here.' "

That's the problem: the Yankee Stadium image. We're not talking about the neighborhood or the parking. The Yankees need help inside the park, too. As one club elder put it, "Why do you think we have to overpay free agents to come here?"