BRONX – Loud boos were heard throughout Yankee Stadium as “O Canada” was played before Game 3 of the American League Division Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees.
The booing started as anthem singer Graham Rowat was introduced on Tuesday night by the stadium PA announcer. The boos picked up again as the Broadway actor finished his rendition.
The crowd then loudly cheered as a large American flag was unfurled in the outfield as Rowat began singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“Sports fans are passionate people,” Rowat said when reached by phone later in the evening. “So I can put it down to that, and maybe not any larger event.”
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The Blue Jays won the first two games of the best-of-five series at Rogers Centre last weekend. It’s the first-ever post-season meeting between the AL East Division rivals.
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The boo-birds returned in the first inning when Toronto slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a two-run homer to give the Blue Jays an early lead.
Anthem booing was common throughout North American sports venues last winter due to tariff-related tensions between Canada and the United States. The trend eventually lost steam.
Rowat, from Peterborough, Ont., is now based in the New York area. He works as an audiobook narrator and has performed in productions such as “Guys and Dolls,” “Mamma Mia!” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
He had performed stadium anthem singings in a group setting before but this was his first solo experience, he said.
Rowat couldn’t hear the boos, he added, because his in-ear monitors essentially sealed off outside sound during his performance.
He said a “polite” staffer at an earlier sound check told him that booing may be a possibility given how it was common at sporting venues earlier in the year.
“If I had not been warned, I probably would have been thrown off,” Rowat said.
Toronto led 6-3 after three innings in the must-win game for the Yankees.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press