NEW YORK (AP) -- Famed "Irish Tenor" Ronan Tynan is apologizing for a remark which he insists was not anti-Semitic, but the incident has cost Tynan his singing gig Friday night at Yankee Stadium for game one of the American League Championship Series.
Tynan, an avid Yankee fan, won't be singing during the seventh-inning stretch after the team cancelled the appearance – and all over something he said.
"The stupid comment that I made, I didn't think would be taken offensively," Tynan said.
It's all because of a remark he made in front of a woman looking for an apartment in his East Side building, a remark that she took as anti-Semitic.
"Anti-Semitism is not in my brain – I have great Jewish friends," Tynan said.
Tynan said it happened Thursday on his floor in the building. A realtor, showing an apartment to a customer, spoke in jest to Tynan.
"The realtor said, 'at least they're not Red Sox fans,'" Tynan said.
The Irish Tenor responded with a remark that, he says, was ill-placed and misunderstood.
"I said, 'whatever about that, at least they're not Jewish,'" Tynan said.
Tynan said it was said in jest to the broker, whom he'd seen three weeks before, and was referring to a specific incident with customers.
"He showed it to two Jewish ladies and they were particular," Tynan said. "I said it would be scary for them because I would not be quiet – I practice and sing – and we sort of joked about it."
Tynan said that even though that's what he was thinking of in his head – the humor of a previous encounter – the prospective buyer, he later found out, took exception to his comment.
"I immediately, when I was told, rang her up and apologized, sincerely and profusely," Tynan said.
The offended woman, a pediatrician at NYU Medical Center, accepted Tynan's apology and asked him to make a donation to the Pediatrics Unit. Tynan, who is a medical doctor with two amputated legs, agreed.
"I love New York and all aspects of it, and New York has been kind to me and good to me," Tynan said.
He says he's learned a valuable lesson: don't be flippant, and think before you speak.
It has yet to be decided whether Tynan will be singing at Yankee Stadium in the future
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