National Anthem Singer At Pirates Game Changes Lyrics, Sparks Debate About Political Agenda

The Pittsburgh Pirates invited a local political activist known as Man-E to sing the national anthem ahead of their game against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday and he may have taken the opportunity to push his political beliefs on everyone in attendance by changing the lyrics to the "Star Spangled Banner."

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

Simple mistake, or purposeful edit? We don't know for sure since Man-E doesn't seem to have said anything publicly since his pre-game performance. But the circumstantial evidence supports the idea that he was sending a message. 

His girlfriend is local Democrat councilwoman Bethany Hallam, who brags about being formerly incarcerated in her X bio. She shared the video on social media.

As for a little background on Man-E, his claim to fame is being arrested in downtown Pittsburgh at a protest about police violence. He bragged about being arrested in a story published by Vice in 2021, in which he described worry of potentially catching COVID.

"Most of the 45 protesters who were arrested that night were given the same two charges of disorderly conduct and failure to disperse. Upon entering the jail, my forehead was scanned for a fever and I was given a mask and flip flops to wear. I was placed in multiple holding cells with fellow inmates, up to nine, where we were not required to wear our masks, so COVID was definitely a concern," the story reads. 

"We were arraigned, photographed and fingerprinted individually before being allowed to make an initial phone call, which was roughly 10 hours after the arrest."

You can't even go to a midweek MLB game featuring two teams under .500 without having politics - specifically liberal politics - thrown in your face these days. This comes as no surprise of course given that half the country praised athletes who kneeled during the playing of the national anthem just a few short years ago.

Getting upset about a random person changing the lyrics to the anthem in front of a couple of thousand fans is a waste of energy, but it is valid to question what the Pirates were thinking inviting a no-name political activist with less than 1,000 followers on Instagram onto the field to perform.