Thus spoke the Philadelphia Flyers (ice hockey team) of their adopted good luck-goddess, Kate Smith. I write about her today because we are entering the season of baseball playoffs. When major league baseball resumed in the week after the 9/11 attacks, teams began offering "God Bless America" as a patriotic flourish in the seventh inning stretch. They would do well to play a recording of Smith singing "God Bless America" which was written for her by Irving Berlin in 1938. The Flyers played it before a game in 1969. They won. Over the next 30 years Smith (often in person) and her song (sometimes a recording) achieved a stunning success: 94 wins, 26 losses and 4 ties. For pure joy, watch this clip of her performance before Game 6 of the 1974 Stanley Cup finals in which the Flyers beat the Bruins and went on to win the championship.
Perhaps today's performers will channel their inner fat lady, stand and deliver in the same way.
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