The joke at the bottom of the article is hilarious.

I think that joke has a little more currency these days. It's been revived!

Max, you should send your story to Bud Selig's office. He might get personally stirred up about this one and discipline the KC ownership (rightfully) for this stunt.

Max, that's a very weird event, and it sounds like it was quite inappropriate. I'm sorry that it happened and that you had to be exposed to it. As a Christian, it bothers me both that other people would be marginalized in that way, and that Christians are so willing to be used by marketing machinery. Too many American Christians conceive of their faith, and allow other to see their faith, as another of the labels, hobbies, or avocations which marketers love to learn about so they can more effectively target an audience. I can't imagine why a Christian should be particularly delighted to have a special day at the ballpark. It reflects an inconsistent, immature faith, and I'm again sorry that you were exposed to it.

Another question that came to my mind, Max, was this: Is there any possibility that Sweeney's answer wasn't intended to be anti-Jewish? When I read it a couple times I wondered if he meant, "Is it Yiddish?" (based on the sound of the word) Which wouldn't seem to necessarily be intended to mock Jews. I can see that it was a poor choice to broadcast it, and I can easily imagine lots of insensitive folk hooting at it, but I'm just wondering if it might have been intended more innocently than it ended up seeming?

Max, this is a joke right? Are you so desperate to attack a fundamentalist christian that you have to imply Sweeney is anti Semetic?

Russian Jews use the term Babooshka all the time when referring to grandmothers, great aunts and so on. To even consider some off the cuff comment as a slur is absurd. Have you ever heard of "Babooshka kabob"? It is an old recipe made by my Jewish in-laws every Hannukkah. They don't seem to mind the term. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they said that the term was Jewish as well.

Maybe some people need to lighten up a bit and understand that not everything in life is intended to offend other people.

Max-

I agree, that comment can, and in my mind is, taken in an offensive light.

However, despite not being from the KC area, I'm inclined not to question the Royals on the wisdom of holding a "Christian Family Day" or whatever it was. It seems to me to be something that they can and should use to promote their attendance given the local population.

As well as being a baseball fan, I'm also a huge MLS fan. Despite the fact that MLS is now 8 seasons old, part of being a fan still consists of attendance watching/analysis so that we can ensure the survival of our league. Now, the KC Wizards are routinely at the bottom of the league in attendance more often than not unable to crack the 10K barrier in average attendance. However, every season they hold a similar promotion involving Christian speakers and free Christian concerts following the soccer match. And what happens on these dates? Attendance balloons to the 20-25K mark.

My point is, if I were running the Royals I would most definitely exploit a trait in the local population that is going to boost my attendance. Sport is a business, the more butts in the seats the better job you're doing. If the majority of my fans tend to be conservative, fundamentalist Christians I'm going to do what it takes to pander to them.

This mishegas never would have arisen if baseball had a salary yarmulke.

Is a word sounding "Jewish" some inside joke/slur among Christian Fundamentalists? It sounds like (according to Max) that Sweeney was making a joke, and apparently the woman next to Max thought it was HI-larious. I don't get it. I don't particularly find it funny, nor would I be offended (although, admittedly, I'm not Jewish, although my sister-in-law is, FWIW). Mostly, I can't understand why others would think it was so funny. What am I missing?

This atheist is with DavidBrazeal on this issue. I wasn't there to sense the timbre of the event, but I don't see anything wrong with it at face value.

However, it was not too bright of the Royals to incite the crowd to laugh at Sweeney saying "Is it Jewish?", because it could (and apparently did, to some) make it LOOK like people were laughing at Jews, or making light of them. It doesn't sound like that was the intention, but it's not something you want to do because right or wrong, you don't want to make people feel that way between innings at a frigging baseball game. I'm guessing that Sweeney was asking the question really not knowing what a babooshkah was, and I can understand why he might test the waters and sincerely ask if it was "Jewish" (ends in -kah?).

For some reason there is a hair trigger attached to the word root "Jew" in our culture and this bleeds over into the adjective "Jewish." I think it's because the term "Jew" is simultaneously the non-offensive one to use to describe someone of the Jewish faith and/or ancestry AND a term used as a slur. I have seen people bristle when I referred to someone, in a completely non-derogatory way, as a Jew. For most other such cases, there is greater distinction between the non-derogatory terms (e.g., African American) versus the slurs.

And the separation of church and state issue here is completely off target. There is nothing wrong with, say, a church renting out a town meeting hall for a church event. The town would not be sponsoring the event, just providing the venue for it.

Mike Sweeney is a born-again Christian, which I think is pretty much a fundamentalist thing.

Not at all. There are born-again Catholics.

Max

In mother Russia, "baboushka" means girl as ugly as baboon, not even 3 shot of vodka make her look good!

In Russia, we only have two tv channels. On first channel is communist propaganda. On second channel is KGB saying "Hey! Turn back to other channel!"

Max, one final thing. The crowd (and yes, I was there) was laughing at Sweeney, a fan favorite, for his dumb answer. To even equate that with a Nuremburg rally is likely far more offensive to Jewish people than some flip comment.

Lot of good comments upthread (#14, #21, #23, #32, #36). This is why I suggested sending a complaint to someone higher up and seeing what kind of response you get. If enough people got offended, something will be done. Baseball teams aren't in a position to offend fans such that they don't want to come to the ballpark.

Shredder, I grew up in a Catholic household, and there wasn't the concept of born-again that there is in the Protestant/Baptist community. You had more and less observant Catholics, but "born again" to me connotes a specific set of practices (including public profession of faith) that just doesn't apply to Catholic life.

Christian Family Day is an invitation to Christians to enjoy a game of baseball, so it's a great promotion idea. But the in-game entertainment crew didn't exercise common sense (no politics or religion) in running the Sweeney bit. That's all, IMHO.

Brings to my mind the thing in Fenway Park last year, where Manny's batting music was a profane lyric that stadium personnel didn't cut off in time. (Ah here it is: Bad Rap At Fenway). All of us here are old enough to handle a "mofo" in music, but at the ballpark over the PA?

The Mariners recently have tried a similar thing for between-innings entertainment: an 'American Idol' parody, where popular Mariners warble some sort of song and the Idol judges' pronouncements are spliced in. That worked in that we could laugh at players making fools of themselves in public, and it was apolitical and areligious.

But Greg (#49), where's the problem with the Sweeney bit?

It seems to me that Max #1 was offended because:

a.) The crowd (of christians in his mind) thought it was funny

VegasRobb, you'd have to ask Max #1 to learn exactly what offended him about the Sweeney bit, since I wasn't there. I read the "smirked" part and thought that maybe he wasn't overreacting. And geez, he has the right to his own reaction.

Re: #51

I never said he didn't. Because you're one calling for MLB to get involved and smite the KC Royals I figured you'd be able to explain where offense came from. Your "geez" and "ask Max #1" reaction leads me to think your initial reaction to Max #1 was kneejerk and maybe something best left forgotten? I don't know, that's why I'm asking. :)

Anyway, my apologies for revisiting your statement.

Max had the right to his own opinion. But if he is going to read sinister thoughts from Sweeney because of a 'smirk', we certainly can read sinister thoughts from Max for his implied comments towards Christians. To liken the reaction to a Nuremburg rally is disgusting.

Realize, Max, that bigotry against Christians, while rarely exposed, is still bigotry. Have a great day.

I grew up in a Catholic household, and there wasn't the concept of born-again that there is in the Protestant/Baptist community. You had more and less observant Catholics, but "born again" to me connotes a specific set of practices (including public profession of faith) that just doesn't apply to Catholic life.

No doubt, Greg, that the "Born Again" thing is far more common in some Protestant sects than it is in Catholicism. But there are evangelical and strong Born Again movements in the Catholic Church. I too grew up in a Catholic household and actually had quite a bit of exposure to these movements in the 1970s. Whatever correlation exists between fundamentalism and the Born Again movement is probably not entirely coincidental, but the two are not at all the same thing and conflating them is incorrect.