A HIT FOR THE FANS
With the Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium, we look at the history of one of America’s most sung songs
Baseball has inspired a lot of music. There have been pop songs and polkas, quicksteps and two-steps, mambos and marches and even operas have been written in celebration of America’s favorite pastime.
Here are some song titles from over the years:
“Don’t Kill the Umpire Until the Last Man is Out” (1963), “The Umpire’s Revenge” (1888), “I Can’t Get to First Base with You” (1935) and “Home Run Polka” (1867).
But “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” written in 1908 is the most often heard song of them all.
The song was written by Jack Norworth and the music was created by Albert Von Tilzer, two Tin Pan Alley and vaudeville stars. Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated popular music in the nation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Instant success
Norworth’s “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” was his longest-lasting hit. It wasn't until 1940 that he witnessed a major league game.
Von Tilzer was a top tune writer, producing numerous popular music compositions from 1900 continuing through the early 1950s. Some of his other songs are:
“Oh How She Could Yacki-Hacki, Wicki-Wacki, Woo” and “I Used to Love You But It's All Over Now.”
According to the National Archives, it took Norworth about 15 minutes to write the song, which is told from the perspective of a young woman. The song, recorded by Edward
Meeker, became an instant hit and was a No. 1 record for seven weeks. It was the most popular song of 1908.
Seventh-inning stretch
It was first performed at a baseball game in 1934 and then again later that year at a Major League Baseball game. The tradition of singing this baseball anthem in the seventh inning first took place in 1946. The band struck up the song during a game while fans stood for the seventh-inning stretch.
Announcer Harry Caray
St. Louis Cardinals (1945-69)
St. Louis Browns (1945-46)
Oakland Athletics (1970)
Chicago White Sox (1971-81)
Chicago Cubs (1982-97)
Announcer Harry Caray occasionally sang the tune in the seventh inning at White Sox games. On opening day in 1976, team owner Bill Veeck noticed fans singing along with Caray, so a secret microphone was placed in the broadcast booth the next day. Caray started singing the song over the microphone, and the tradition took off. Fans now sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” in the seventh inning at virtually every game in America.
Southern California connection
Von Tilzer resided in Beverly Hills. He died in Los Angeles on Oct. 1, 1956, at age 78.
Norworth died of a heart attack in Laguna Beach on Sept. 1, 1959, at the age of 80.
The lyrics of the 1908 version:
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:
Attempted steal
With fancy cover art and an avalanche of advertising, George M. Cohan, William Jerome and Jean Schwartz composed “Take Your Girl to the Ball Game,” a copycat song, a few days after Norworth’s was a flop.
Chorus
Take your girl to the ball game, Any old afternoon
That’s the place to propose to Mame, The spot for a sun shiny spoon
Make a fan of your steady girl, If you lose her I’ll take the blame
In the stand it’s just grand, as she squeezes your hand
At the baseball game
Baseball Hall Of Fame pitcher Rollie Fingers, who is a Southern California native, participates in the unveiling of a granite monument for “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” songwriter Jack Norworth in July 2010. The ceremony took place at The Melrose Abbey Memorial Park in Anaheim, where Norworth has been buried since 1959.