Major League Baseball celebrated the annual Midsummer Classic – hosting its All-Star Game in Atlanta and featuring players from 29 American teams and one Canadian team.
But fans were outraged after the Canadian National Anthem wasn’t broadcast on Fox Sports before the game began.
The Toronto Blue Jays sent players to the All-Star Game and Canadian fans were serenaded with ‘O, Canada’ by Lauren Spencer Smith.
However, that performance was not broadcast on Fox – who skipped it and only showed The Star-Spangled Banner performed by the Zac Brown Band.
Fox Sports did not immediately return a request for comment on the matter from DailyMail.com.
Fans took to social media to express their outrage in a year where tensions between the US and Canada are at the highest they’ve been in centuries.
Fox Sports did not broadcast the Canadian national anthem before the MLB All-Star Game
Singer Lauren Spencer Smith performed the song, which wasn’t shown in the United States
A large Canadian flag is unfurled at a Toronto Blue Jays game on Canada Day earlier in July
One user on X posted, ‘Once again, @FOXSports doesn’t show the Canadian national anthem on the US feed. So disrespectful.’
‘The absence of the Canadian anthem and the jets was a missed moment for sure. Do you think the MLB could do better with its entertainment choices in the future?’ said one pro-Trump account.
‘Did @FOXSports not show the Canadian national anthem for the #AllStarGame or did they even have it?’ asked another.
One account posted, ‘Typical Fox, of course they skipped over the Canadian anthem for television.’
Another wrote, ‘@FOXSports shame on you for not showing the Canadian anthem.’
After President Trump enflamed tensions between Canada earlier this year by threatening to turn them into the ’51st state’, that rivalry between the two nations spilled over into baseball, basketball, and hockey.
The latter sport served as an inflection point of that tension in the NHL’s ‘4 Nations Faceoff’ – where the US beat Canada in the group stage before losing in overtime on home ice in the Final.
Politically, the two nations are still tense – with Trump and Canadian prime minister Mark Carney in an ongoing battle over trade and tariffs.
