thedrifter
02-24-07, 11:19 AM
Flippant remarks
Former Jay admits cutting remarks in flag flap
By John Kernaghan
The Hamilton Spectator(Feb 24, 2007)
Here we go again, another American athlete defiling the Canadian flag.
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/images/hs/hs1582972_1.jpg
The Hamilton Spectator File Photo
FLAG FLAP. Canadians flipped out when a U.S. Marine colour guard flew the Maple Leaf upside down during a 1992 World Series game.
What kind of homes do these folks grow up in?
This week, former Blue Jay Shea Hillenbrand, now a Los Angeles Angel of Anaheim, confessed to cutting up the Canadian flag on his cap and the Canada across the back of his jersey.
He did the scissors job after being pulled from a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on July 1, Canada Day.
He denied this last year, but of course he was no Angel then.
It's the latest in Canada slashing and bashing.
During the Gulf War in 1991, Major League Baseball decreed that all players would wear both the Canadian and U.S. flags on their batting helmets as a patriotic gesture.
Pittsburgh Pirate centre-fielder Andy Van Slyke disagreed, scraping the Maple Leaf off his helmet.
"Canada is a pacifist, socialist country," he claimed.
After being ordered by baseball's commissioner to get that flag back on and proudly displayed, Van Slyke had several explanations, including how he wanted to solely honour a relative serving in the war.
Then the next year, when Toronto Blue Jays met Atlanta Braves in the first international World Series, there was an incident in which a United States Marine Corps colour guard displayed the Canadian flag upside down during the opening ceremony in Atlanta.
Some Canadians felt the flag was flown upside down as a deliberate insult to Canada, but many argued the Corps couldn't be that rotten.
The Marines apologized for the error and thereafter carried the flag properly, after insisting that they were honoured.
Another so-called indignity to the Maple Leaf was the allegation that the American women's hockey team abused a Canadian flag in its dressing room prior to the 2002 Olympic final.
After Canada's gold-medal triumph, an emotional Hayley Wickenheiser told millions of CBC viewers back home that the Maple Leaf had been used as a carpet by the U.S. players.
"The Americans had our flag on the floor of their dressing room. Now I want to know if they want us to sign it," Wickenheiser raged.
But not so fast. The American players, to a woman, said they would never show disrespect to a rival they had played many, many times over the years.
So that one is suspect. And maybe the Marines genuinely made a mistake, though one angle was that they turned the flag on its head because Canadian anthem singer Tom Cochrane has made a flip remark to them.
But those other two suggest a theme of disrespect that many Americans must find embarrassing, considering their devotion to the Stars and Stripes.
jkernaghan@thespec.com
905-526-3422
Ellie
Former Jay admits cutting remarks in flag flap
By John Kernaghan
The Hamilton Spectator(Feb 24, 2007)
Here we go again, another American athlete defiling the Canadian flag.
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/images/hs/hs1582972_1.jpg
The Hamilton Spectator File Photo
FLAG FLAP. Canadians flipped out when a U.S. Marine colour guard flew the Maple Leaf upside down during a 1992 World Series game.
What kind of homes do these folks grow up in?
This week, former Blue Jay Shea Hillenbrand, now a Los Angeles Angel of Anaheim, confessed to cutting up the Canadian flag on his cap and the Canada across the back of his jersey.
He did the scissors job after being pulled from a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on July 1, Canada Day.
He denied this last year, but of course he was no Angel then.
It's the latest in Canada slashing and bashing.
During the Gulf War in 1991, Major League Baseball decreed that all players would wear both the Canadian and U.S. flags on their batting helmets as a patriotic gesture.
Pittsburgh Pirate centre-fielder Andy Van Slyke disagreed, scraping the Maple Leaf off his helmet.
"Canada is a pacifist, socialist country," he claimed.
After being ordered by baseball's commissioner to get that flag back on and proudly displayed, Van Slyke had several explanations, including how he wanted to solely honour a relative serving in the war.
Then the next year, when Toronto Blue Jays met Atlanta Braves in the first international World Series, there was an incident in which a United States Marine Corps colour guard displayed the Canadian flag upside down during the opening ceremony in Atlanta.
Some Canadians felt the flag was flown upside down as a deliberate insult to Canada, but many argued the Corps couldn't be that rotten.
The Marines apologized for the error and thereafter carried the flag properly, after insisting that they were honoured.
Another so-called indignity to the Maple Leaf was the allegation that the American women's hockey team abused a Canadian flag in its dressing room prior to the 2002 Olympic final.
After Canada's gold-medal triumph, an emotional Hayley Wickenheiser told millions of CBC viewers back home that the Maple Leaf had been used as a carpet by the U.S. players.
"The Americans had our flag on the floor of their dressing room. Now I want to know if they want us to sign it," Wickenheiser raged.
But not so fast. The American players, to a woman, said they would never show disrespect to a rival they had played many, many times over the years.
So that one is suspect. And maybe the Marines genuinely made a mistake, though one angle was that they turned the flag on its head because Canadian anthem singer Tom Cochrane has made a flip remark to them.
But those other two suggest a theme of disrespect that many Americans must find embarrassing, considering their devotion to the Stars and Stripes.
jkernaghan@thespec.com
905-526-3422
Ellie