Yankees Pull Plug on Ronan Tynan After Tenor's Bad Joke About Jews

Oct. 16, 2009 — -- Ronan Tynan, the famed Irish tenor, has apologized for anti-Semitic remarks he admits having made which has cost him his regular Yankees 7th inning stretch appearance to sing "God Bless America" and may damage his career.

Tynan made the remarks to a Jewish doctor who was seeking an apartment in his building on Manhattan's East Side.

"It was stupid of me to be so callous, and I would never want to hurt anybody's feelings," Tynan told NBC News in New York after the story surfaced.

According to NBC, the incident happened when the 49-year-old Tynan met a real estate agent who was showing an apartment on his floor to a potential buyer, a Jewish pediatrician from NYU Medical Center.

The real estate agent said to the tenor, "Don't worry they are not Red Sox fans," according to the apartment-hunter, Dr. Gabrielle Gold-von Simson.

To which Tynan replied, "I don't care about that, as long as they are not Jewish," Gabrielle Gold-von Simson told NBC New York.

"Why is that?" asked a flabbergasted Gold-von Simson of the singer.

Tynan replied that Jewish ladies had been looking at the apartment before and they were "scary," according to Gold-von Simson.

The singer now says the remarks were made in jest. The doctor said not.

"I didn't know him at all so how could I take it as a joke," said Gold-von Simson.

Tynan, for his part, claims was just a "big misunderstanding."

"I'm not anti-Semitic and I have never been in my life," Tynan told NBC New York. "There are three members of my band that are Jewish. And I love them like brothers. I call them my brothers from another mother."

Tynan is famous for singing "God Bless America" at Yankee Stadium and "Ave Maria" at the funeral of Ronald Reagan.