Ronan Tynan, the Irish tenor dropped by the New York Yankees after alleged anti-semitic remarks has claimed that the Yankees tried to reach out to him to make amends.
Tynan told his local Irish newspaper the Kilkenny News that Hal Steinbrenner, managing partner of the Yankees, called him to say that Tynan got a “bum deal”, the tenor said and that told him the snub was “embarrassing” to the team.
Tynan says he was not impressed.
“They closed the door,” said Tynan. “They rang me back six months later, about two months ago, just before opening day, and Hal Steinbrenner said, ‘You got a bum deal and it is embarrassing to us, but life goes on.’
“He said this would all blow over and everything would be fine in the long run. They half hinted to me by another source that it was all going to be fine.”
Tynan now based in Boston says the row was “water under the bridge” but remains upset the Yankees and Steinbrenner dropped.
“He knew there was nothing in my character, in my life, that was antisemitic or bigoted. For them to take a brief encounter and take that person’s interpretation of what I am literally in about 15 seconds, as opposed to someone they knew for 10 years, that hurt.”
A spokeswoman for the Yankees said they had no desire to go “back and forth” with Tynan, and could only say that “we wish him well”.
Last October Tynan made a joke to an estate agent and her client who were viewing an apartment next to Tynan’s on New York’s East Side.
The agent told the singer the apartment had been sold, joking: “Don’t worry, they’re not Red Sox fans.” Tynan replied: “As long as they’re not the Jewish ladies.” - a pair who had looked at the apartment earlier.
Gabrielle Gold-von Simson, a Jewish doctor accompanying the agent took offense and informed the Yankees who canceled Tynan's appearances to sing 'America the Beautiful" after the seventh inning stretch.
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