By WFAN.com
One minor league baseball team won't follow the Yankees' and Philadelphia Flyers' lead in shunning Kate Smith and her rendition of "God Bless America."
Steve Kalafer, chairman of New Jersey's Somerset Patriots, told New Jersey 101.5 on Thursday that the team will continue to play Smith's 1938 recording at home games.
"Kate Smith raised, in today's dollars, over $10 million in bonds for the war effort," the New Jersey car dealer said. "What we are worried about -- I'm tired of being politically correct. How about just being correct?"
The Yankees banned Smith's "God Bless America" after a fan alerted them that two of her songs -- 1931's "That's Why Darkies Were Born" and 1933's "Pickaninny Heaven" -- contained racist lyrics. The Flyers followed suit by banning the song as well and removed a statue of Smith from outside the Wells Fargo Center.
Kalafer has offered to take the statue in exchange for a $10,000 donation to the Flyers' social justice fund.
He noted that Paul Robeson, who was black, also sang "That's Why Darkies Were Born."
Meanwhile, the mayor of Wildwood said the Jersey shore town will continue to play Smith's "God Bless of America" every morning on its boardwalk and has also offered to take the Flyers' statue of her.
The Somerset Patriots are a member of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball and play their games at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater.
