Singer of the national anthem at the Pirates game changes lyrics: “Rockets Blue Glare”

The Pittsburgh Pirates invited a local political activist named Man-E to sing the national anthem before their game against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday, and he may have taken the opportunity to impose his political views on everyone in attendance by changing the lyrics to “Star Spangled Banner.”

Instead of singing “and the rockets red glare,” he sang “and the rockets blue glare.”

Simple mistake or deliberate change? We don’t know for sure, as Man-E doesn’t seem to have said anything publicly since his pre-match performance. But the evidence supports the assumption that he wanted to send a message.

His girlfriend is Democratic City Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, who brags in her X-bio about having previously been to prison. She shared the video on social media.

A little background on Man-E: His fame stems from his arrest in downtown Pittsburgh during a protest against police brutality. He boasted about his arrest in a story published by Vice in 2021 in which he described concerns about potentially contracting COVID.

“Most of the 45 protesters arrested that night were charged with disorderly conduct and failure to disperse. When I entered the jail, my forehead was checked for a fever and I was given a mask and flip-flops to put on. I was put in several cells with fellow inmates, up to nine, where we were not required to wear masks, so COVID was definitely a concern,” the story said.

“We were brought before the court individually, photographed and fingerprinted before we were allowed to have our first telephone conversation about ten hours after our arrest.”

You can’t even go to a midweek MLB game these days where two teams are under .500 without politics — particularly liberal politics — being thrown in your face. This isn’t surprising, of course, considering that just a few years ago half the country was praising athletes who knelt during the national anthem.

Getting upset about someone changing the words of the national anthem in front of a few thousand fans is a waste of energy. But it’s fair to ask what the Pirates were thinking when they invited an unknown political activist with fewer than 1,000 Instagram followers to perform on the field.