Katie Casey was Base ball Mad!

Do you know who Katie Casey is? If you have been to a Major League Baseball game you have probably sung her words or at least the words that Jack Norworth attributed to this fictional girl in his famous tune "Take Me Out to The Ball Game." When we sing the song now during the seventh inning stretch we skip right to the chorus and miss the context of the lyrics Norworth wrote on a subway train in 1908. The video above is a recording from 1908 featuring the entire song with the original lyrics. Although Norworth had never been to a baseball game when he wrote the song, in fact it took him 32 years to get to one, he certainly captures the love affair many of us have with the game.

Katie Casey was base ball 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."

"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:

"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."

The next time you're standing for that seventh inning stretch and belting out this tune maybe you'll think of Katie Casey singing it to cheer up the boys over 100 years ago or maybe you'll think of my daughter who used to get mixed up and sing "buy me some crackers and Apple Jacks." In any case, I hope you'll think of the millions of people young and old tied together throughout the years by this one song and a love of baseball!