Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Take Me Out to the Ball Game
lyrics by Jack Norworth
music by Albert Von Tilzer

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks,
I don't care if I never get back.

Jack Norworth was riding a New York City subway one day in 1908. Incredible as it may sound, he had never been to a baseball game in his life, but he noticed a poster on the subway that read “Baseball Today – Polo Grounds” and was inspired to pen some lyrics. He gave the words the title of Take Me Out to the Ball Game and handed them to his friend and fellow Tin Pan Alley collaborator Albert Von Tilzer (who also had never been to a game). Now, the next time someone tells you that you can’t speak out on the evils of drugs if you’ve never taken them, or that Catholic priests are not qualified to counsel people on matters of love and marriage, just point them to Messrs Norworth and Von Tilzer. They hit a grand-slam home run without even knowing what one was. Mr Norworth reworked the verse in 1927, the year before Mr Von Tilzer saw his first game (Mr Norworth didn’t go to the park until 1940). But back on that day in 1908, here’s how it all began:

Katie Casey was baseball mad,
Had the fever and had it bad.
Just to root for the home town crew,
Ev'ry sou
Katie blew.
On a Saturday her young beau
Called to see if she'd like to go
To see a show, but Miss Kate said "No,
I'll tell you what you can do:"

We all know what happens next, but in case you’re wondering, “sou” was a slang term for any low denomination coin. When people sing the song nowadays (if they sing the verse at all), they usually sing “ev’ry cent, Katie spent” (as did Carly Simon in Ken Burns’ 1994 Baseball documentary). To further complicate matters, in the 1927 version, “Katie Casey” is replaced with “Nellie Kelly”, Nellie’s boyfriend’s name is Joe, and Joe says, “to Coney Isle, dear, let’s go”. But these are all extraneous matters, like the variations in the four Gospels that show different facets of the same story. When it comes to the core truth, it’s something that’s now part of our DNA:

Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd;
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks,
I don't care if I never get back.
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win, it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game.

It may be cause for concern that most of us can repeat these words more easily than we can the words of the Apostles’ Creed. But then, Baseball is also rich with mystery, miracles, repetition, faith, heartbreak, redemption, tradition and wonder. Annie Savoy in Bull Durham actually gets it slightly wrong: there are only 59 beads on a Rosary, while there are 108 stitches in a baseball. But the Angelus bell is rung 108 times as the Rosaries are said. And check this out as an example of how “the Heavens are declaring the glories of God (Psalm 19:1)”: the diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth, the distance from the Sun to the Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Sun, and the average distance of the Moon from the Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Moon. Also, as if us Trinitarians needed any further convincing, 108 is the hyperfactorial of 3 (1 to the first power times 2 to the second power times 3 to the third power): it’s three “to the max” in other words. Coincidence? I don’t think so either.

And, if you’ll forgive me, Psalm 108 (in verse 10) echoes Katie Casey’s need to be taken to the game, when it says, “Who will bring me to the fortified city?” And verses 12 and 13 of Psalm 108 are, rightly or wrongly, the prayer of any fan who has ever asked for help against the dreaded foe (in my case, the evil Red Sox):

Give us aid against the enemy,
for the help of man is worthless.
With God we will gain the victory,
and he will trample down our enemies.

But back to the song. Katie (aka Nellie) is safely in her seat at the ballpark by verse two. In true Gospel fashion, Katie has been rescued and is now ready to be an encouragement to others:

Katie Casey saw all the games,
Knew the players by their first names.
Told the umpire he was wrong,
All along,
Good and strong.
When the score was just two to two,
Katie Casey knew what to do,
Just to cheer up the boys she knew,
She made the gang sing this song:

And then everyone joins her on “Take me out to the ballgame . . .” We’ve all kept singing along with her for a century now. This week, the fans again begin stretching during the seventh innings at Spring Training exhibition games. And this July, the Post Office will issue a commemorative stamp for the 100th Anniversary of the song. The first-day issue will be in Williamsport, PA, the home of Little League Baseball.

Popular culture has referred to the song in countless ways these past 100 years. In the film Night at the Opera, the Marx Brothers sneak the sheet music of Take Me Out to the Ballgame into the score during the Overture of Il Trovatore. The Brothers then began imitating a baseball game, with Groucho hawking, “Peanuts! Peanuts! Getcher Red Hot Peanuts!” Strange as it may seem, this is an example of life imitating art, or at least life imitating low-brow comedy, and I'll try to explain. We all know that announcer Harry Caray was famous for his leading the crowd in the song during the seventh inning stretch. Did you know that the practice actually started as a practical joke played on him? Mr Caray used to sing the song to himself (as a “private devotional”, if you will) in the press box during the seventh inning stretch. One day, White Sox owner Bill Veeck snuck in a public address microphone, captured Mr Caray’s enthusiastic singing, and broadcast it to the crowd. Once the crowd heard it, they loved it and began to sing along. And the rest, as they say, is history. It is estimated that Take Me Out to the Ball Game is the third most sung song in the United States after The Star Spangled Banner and Happy Birthday to You. After September 11, 2001, ballparks switched their seventh inning stretch music to God Bless America for a while, but they now seem to have gone back to Take Me Out to the Ball Game, reserving God Bless America for Sundays and special holidays. That’s as it should be, don’t you think?

We’re approaching the “seventh inning stretch” of Lent. How’s it going for you? Are you flagging? Are you rallying? Here’s Annie Savoy from Bull Durham again with words of encouragement: “It’s a long season and you gotta trust.”

Better yet, here are the words of Hebrews 12:1-3: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

In baseball’s Apocrypha, there are numerous stories of baseball being an encouragement for weary hearts. We have all heard the story of Babe Ruth visiting little Johnny Sylvester in the hospital and promising to hit a home run for him – and then following through on that promise. The real story is slightly different: Babe Ruth did not actually visit the boy until after the World Series, although he did make the promise to the boy’s uncle, who then relayed it to little Johnny. In our minds, though, we all remember “the Babe” walking up to the plate and “calling it”: pointing to the place in the outfield bleachers to where he was going to smash the ball.

As we approach Easter, there is a great story where Jesus “calls it”, too. He tells His disciples in Mark 8:31, “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.” And it all happened, just like he said. You can look it up.