Singer Tynan benched at Yankees game

NEW YORK, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The New York Yankees have benched their regular "God Bless America Singer," Ronan Tynan, due to anti-Semitic comments, the team said.

Tynan, familiar to baseball fans for singing "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning break at Yankees playoff games, was absent Friday for Game 1 of the Yankees' American League Championship Series with the Los Angeles Angels. The Yankees confirmed he had been dropped from the program because he had referred to prospective buyers at the apartment building he lives in as "scary" Jewish ladies.

He made the comment after a real estate agent had assured him the prospective buyers are not Red Sox fans.

"I don't care about that," Tynan said, "as long as they are not Jewish."

The Yankees said Tynan, 49, made the remark to Dr. Gabrielle Gold-von Simson, a New York University Medical Center pediatrician, who reported it to the Yankees front office, the New York Post reported Saturday.

"He said it was a bad joke," team spokeswoman Alice McGillion said. "So we told him that was absolutely intolerable behavior and he needed to apologize."

Tynan said he "was too stupid with my mouth," the Post reported.

"A lot of my friends are Jewish," he said. "It's something misfortunate."

Tynan is not a Yankees employee, McGillion said, and the team has "no plans for him to sing" for the rest of the playoffs.