Tuesday 3 June 2008

Casey's first at-bat

Oh Wikipedia, what wonderous nuggets of information you bring!

Yep, sitting there on the front page, "On this day..." informs me that it was 120 years ago on June 3rd 1888 that that brilliant poem, Casey at the Bat was first published, in the San Francisco Examiner.

I think thats worth a link to the Baseball Almanac's page on the poem, which has a recording of De Wolf Hopper's famous delivery - well worth a listen if you've never heard it before (though presumably as baseball fans, anyone reading this will have!).

I was going to copy my favourite stanza here, but reading it again, I just can't decide which one I like best. So I shall go for the first one, and invite everyone back to Mudville to watch Casey's big moment...
The Outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

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