Take Me Out To The Ballgame
We all know the song.
Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd;
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
It was a song pinned by Jack Norworth, the lyrics, and Alber Von Tilzer, the music, in 1908 in the New York area known as Tin Pan Alley. Since then it has become the staple of the seventh inning stretch and sung by all in the ballpark.
But there is more to it. For starters, Norworth or Van Tilzer had never been to a baseball game. In fact, they did not attend one until a couple or more decades after writing the song. Norworth wrote it because he was inspired by a sign that said “Baseball Today – Polo Grounds” while he rode the subway. He jotted down the lyrics on an envelope. This can be viewed today along with his annotations at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
There is actually more to the song, although most have only heard the chorus. The song is really about Katie Casey wanting to go on a date and she has no money. But instead of a show, she tells her suitor “Take me out to the ballgame.”
The lyrics are as such:
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.”
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:
So grab your loved one and take them out to the ballgame.
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