Researching the history of the greatest baseball song

     If it weren’t for Jack Norworth in 1908, one of the things that makes baseball so great wouldn't be a part of the game today.

     No, he didn't make the scorecard, nor did he come up with the designated hitter. He didn't invent the baseball bat or know how to crack opposing managers’ signs.

     What Mr. Norworth did for the game of baseball in 1908 always blares over the speakers in the middle of the seventh inning.

     “Take me out to the ballgame!”

     Can you believe the song, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” was written in just 15 minutes on a train ride to Manhattan, N.Y.? After writing the lyrics on a piece of scrap paper, apparently he spotted a sign about baseball; because he didn’t attend a game until the 1940s. He gave the lyrics to Albert Von Tilzer, who composed the music we hear at ballparks today. Von Tilzer never watched a game until 1928. Norworth saw his first game in 1942 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, according to a New York Daily Times report.

     Did you know the song at the ballpark is just a small piece of the song? Did you know there are two different versions, with the second version coming in 1927 when Norworth decided to change the lyrics to the part of the song that is never sung at the ballpark?

     The original version starts out like this: 

     “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...’”

     I will be honest, I didn't know that version of the song existed until I was in college when my professor played it for us during a baseball literature class (four years of school and that is all I got from it!).

     But in looking for more information on the song, I found out that in 1927 a few things were changed, especially in the first verse of the song. It went a little something like this:

     “Nelly Kelly love 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...”

     I think I like the first version a little better. I'd rather go to a game with Katie Casey than Nelly Kelly for the fact Katie Casey was baseball mad and Kelly seemed like a bit of a drama queen and know-it-all with her fretting and pouting. 

     But, there is more to the song.

     There is another verse about Katie and Nelly in their respective songs telling the umpires they were wrong and how the score was tied, and how to cheer up the boys.

     In an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune on March 30, 2008, it says the song was sung during reel changes in movie theaters to promote sales of the sheet music.

     Another fun fact I found out involving the song was that in 1994, WJMP-AM in Kent, Ohio protested the baseball strike by playing the song 25,000 times in a row. It said in an article I read about it that fans of the sports radio show called in and said. “Keep it coming.”

     Did you know there is a movie called "Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” starring Frank Sinatra?

     Harry Caray first sang the song at a ballgame in 1971, but not for the Chicago Cubs as you might expect. The true story is Caray sang the song for the Chicago White Sox years before he was in the broadcast booth for the so-called “Lovable Losers.”

     On baseball-almanac.com, it quotes Caray, saying: “I would always sing it, because I think it's the only song I knew the words to!”

     The website also has a story on how Caray first sang it with a crowd.

     “On Opening Day in 1976, Bill Veeck noticed the fans were singing along with Caray so a secret microphone was placed in the broadcast booth the following day to allow ALL the fans to hear him.”

     It was said Veeck, the former owner of the White Sox who was responsible for Disco Demolition Night, told Caray if anyone in the park heard Caray sing the song, they knew they could sing it better than he could, so they would sing along with him.

     But thanks to Caray, the song still lives in ballparks everywhere. Since Caray’s death in the late 1990s, the Cubs have had a guest singer to bring the crowds to their feet at Wrigley Field. In my one trip to the North Side in 2006, the celebrity who sang the song was Vince Vaughn. Though I know he was better than Mike Ditka and way better than Ozzy Osbourne, I am just glad I was able to take part in a little baseball tradition that one time.

     Even though I am about as far away from being a Cubs fan as humanly possible, sometimes it is fun to get on YouTube and search for Caray and his singing of the song. (Feel free to sing along): “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 ever get back, Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don’t win it’s a shame...”

     So, with that, I hope everyone thinks about some of the history when they sing the song at any level of a baseball game at the ball park, because if not, all there is left to say is: “For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out, At the ol’ ball game.”

     Stephen Forsha is the sports editor of The Highland County Press.