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Baseball Traditions: Take Me Out To the Ball Game

Written by Blythe Brumleve

Baseball season is right around the corner and to celebrate, we are featuring some of our favorite articles that make this game so great.

Take me out to the ball game by A30_Tsitika.

A few weeks after the Super Bowl it's the worst time of year.

Long since the October days have passed that we as sports fans have had all the major sports to follow. For the next few weeks, ESPN will not consume most of our lives and it friggin' sucks.

College Basketball has no interest to me unless its March Madness. And both the NBA and NHL's playoffs are so long, I don't really start paying attention until April.

Luckily for baseball fans, our feeling of sports emptiness will soon be over as pitchers and catchers reported this week.

This still leaves at least another month until opening day but its our light at the end of the tunnel dammit, we shouldn't gaze away.

To curve the fix for baseball information, we will start posting the favorite baseball customs and traditions that make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

First up, the theme song to baseball: Take Me Out To the Ball Game

 

Harry Caray- The Man, No Myth, Just Legend

Of course you cannot mention this famous song with out mentioning Hall of Fame Sports Caster Harry Caray. For those who do not know, Caray was responsible for making the singing of the song a 7th inning tradition with fans.

Apparently Caray was so enthusiastic about singing the song, his radio producer at the time  turned on Caray's mic without his knowledge and thus the fan favorite tradition was born. (early 1970's)

During his tenure with 4 MLB franchises (White Sox, Cubs, Cardinals and A's),  Harry Caray made the song famous by inserting the home team's name for "the home team" in the song's lyric, a ritual practiced by many baseball fans around the country.

Coincidentally, the year the song was written (1908) is the last year the Cubs won the World Series.

 

Hit the jump to continue reading....

 

  

Honestly I'm surprised Harry has returned from the grave to strangle some of the people who have butchered the classic song.

I don't blame you if you don't listen, It was hard for me to do the research of finding the "good videos" of people stinkin up the famous song.

Mike Ditka- To be honest, Ditka to me like Chuck Norris to people who don't know who Mike Ditka is. Because he is awesome at everything he does, this rendition is pure magic.

To others? Not so much...

  


Other Hilarious Rendentions of Take Me Out to the Ball Game....

Mr. T Rendention--I have no words...simply amazing and everything I imagined.

Ozzy Ozbourne--A simple song such as this is a little too much for Ozzy and the meds.

Jeff Gordon-- He was doomed when he said Wrigley "Stadium" instead of Field but he didn't even have the balls to sing out the song. He deserved the boo's.

 


Quick Facts

  • At Dodgers stadium the song's chorus is played and sung twice, but the second time is done a half-step higher.
  • During the April 17, 2008 Colorado Rockies vs. San Diego Padres 22 inning game, the song was played at the 14th Inning Stretch and once again at the PETCO Park unprecedented 21st Inning Stretch.
  • On January 1, 2009, the NHL held the Winter Classic outdoor game at Wrigley Field including a version of Take Me Out to the Ball Game performed half-way through the third period by Ryne Sandberg, Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Denis Savard. The lyrics were altered in reference to ice hockey rather than baseball. ("Root Root Root for the Blackhawks")


 


History of Take Me Out to the Ball Game

  • Was originally written in 1908 by Jack Norworth
  • Another version was written in 1927 by Norworth as well.
  • The "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" as we know it today, was actually the chorus of the original songs. The following are the versions from 1908 and 1927 side by side for comparison
1908 Version

Katie Casey was baseball mad,
Had the fever and had it bad.
Just to root for the home town crew,
Ev'ry sou1
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:"

 1927 Version

Nelly Kelly loved baseball games,
Knew the players, knew all their names.
You could see her there ev'ry day,
Shout "Hurray"
When they'd play.
Her boyfriend by the name of Joe
Said, "To Coney Isle, dear, let's go",
Then Nelly started to fret and pout,
And to him, I heard her shout:
[Chorus]

Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd;
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
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.

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:

Nelly Kelly was sure some fan,
She would root just like any man,
Told the umpire he was wrong,
All along,
Good and strong.
When the score was just two to two,
Nelly Kelly knew what to do,
Just to cheer up the boys she knew,
She made the gang sing this song:

[repeat Chorus]

 


That video should give any baseball fan gooosebumps no matter what team you love.

As much as I hate all things Yankee, Bernie Williams has a beautiful guitar rendition of the song. Skip through the first 17 seconds of Yankee PR garbage to get to the song but once it starts just close your eyes and listen.

Plus you don't want the images of Bernie and the old Yankee stadium to ruin a perfectly good song.