114th anniversary of "Casey At The Bat,"

[GaryMrMets]

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MLB.com salutes the 114th anniversary




June 3, 2002 marks the 114th anniversary of "Casey At The Bat," a poem so timeless that it's been ingrained in our culture for more than a century.

As befitting its broad appeal, "Casey At The Bat" has been performed countless times in countless settings. It has been performed in theatres, ballparks, and classrooms. It has been performed on a stage in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, and it has even been performed on "Saturday Night Live."



There are traditional performances, and some not as traditional. For example, one unique performance begins with the large magician/illusionist, Penn Jillette holding in his hand a red rope that suspends his partner, the meek, the mild, Teller, up in the air. By the way, Teller is in a strait jacket AND hanging upside down, AND suspended over sharp wooden spikes.

Penn, in his big, booming voice makes clear to the audience that if (and when) the rope is released Teller will be impaled upon the spikes. Penn then ties the rope to a folding chair, sits down, and explains that he will read a poem from the book he is holding. At the reading's completion, Penn will stand up and take a bow, at which point the chair will go flying up and Teller will go flying down. Penn then leafs through his book, finds the poem of his choice, and starts reading aloud to the audience. Thus begins the Penn & Teller performance of "Casey At The Bat." The likelihood is that this is the most unusual, and certainly most dangerous, reading of America's classic baseball poem written by Ernest Lawrence Thayer and published first on June 3, 1888.

[GaryMrMets]

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The Joy of Mudville
By Bill Chuck

June 3, 2002 marks the 114th anniversary of "Casey At The Bat," a poem so timeless that it's been ingrained in our culture for more than a century.

As befitting its broad appeal, "Casey At The Bat" has been performed countless times in countless settings. It has been performed in theatres, ballparks, and classrooms. It has been performed on a stage in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, and it has even been performed on "Saturday Night Live."

There are traditional performances, and some not as traditional. For example, one unique performance begins with the large magician/illusionist, Penn Jillette holding in his hand a red rope that suspends his partner, the meek, the mild, Teller, up in the air. By the way, Teller is in a strait jacket AND hanging upside down, AND suspended over sharp wooden spikes.

Penn, in his big, booming voice makes clear to the audience that if (and when) the rope is released Teller will be impaled upon the spikes. Penn then ties the rope to a folding chair, sits down, and explains that he will read a poem from the book he is holding. At the reading's completion, Penn will stand up and take a bow, at which point the chair will go flying up and Teller will go flying down. Penn then leafs through his book, finds the poem of his choice, and starts reading aloud to the audience. Thus begins the Penn & Teller performance of "Casey At The Bat." The likelihood is that this is the most unusual, and certainly most dangerous, reading of America's classic baseball poem written by Ernest Lawrence Thayer and published first on June 3, 1888.

De Wolf Hopper, a comedian/actor has become the actor most synonymous as the voice of "Casey" having performed it over 10,000 times by his own estimation. Hopper was the first to perform it August 14, 1888 on Wallack's Theatre in New York City and he started a long and glorious tradition of performance, for example:

For many children the first voice of "Casey at the Bat" that they hear is that of Jerry Colonna, one of Bob Hope's sidekicks, who provided the voice over in Disney's 1946, cartoon classic, "Casey At The Bat." Since then, radio humorist Garrison Keillor, has performed his version of "Casey" and to no one's surprise, baseball aficionado and voice of the fans, Bob Costas, has performed it as well.

You might find it scary to hear the Vincent Price rendition of Casey but reassuring to hear it read by the mellifluous voice of James Earl Jones.

You will always remember Ralph Kramden, but Jackie Gleason's reading of "Casey" is unforgettable.

The Favorite Poem Project is the brainchild of U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky who believes that poetry is a vocal art, an art meant to be read aloud. On May 8, 2000, as part of the project, Pinsky celebrated the baseball season with "Casey at the Bat" read by Lee Samuel, a young fan from Atlanta.

There are stories of fifth-graders reciting the words and famous Mass General Hospital surgeons and politicians performing in classrooms and in front of Pops Orchestras throughout the world but there is also the story of Hall-of-Famer Ralph Kiner as a child reciting it to a truant officer, named John Casey.

Teammates of former Chicago Cub, Boston Celtics, and television's "Rifleman" recall Chuck Connors performing "Casey" in the locker room.

Peter Nero, the Music Director of the Philly Pops Orchestra and Florida Philharmonic recorded Frank Proto's musical, "Casey at the Bat" with the Philly Pops and former relief pitcher Tug McGraw as the narrator. Hall-of-Fame catcher, Johnny Bench performed it with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Amongst the many works of American musician and composer, William Schuman, were The Mighty Casey (opera), Casey at the Bat (cantata), and the separately published Choruses from the Mighty Casey: The Orchestra Song and The Band Song. Schuman's "Casey At The Bat" opera premiered on May 4, 1953, in Hartford, Connecticut and has been performed by the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre as well.

Composer and concert bassist Frank Proto performed his "Casey" concert hundreds of times with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Robert Merrill brought joy with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington's Kennedy Center.

You'll be speechless if you see mime Michael Trautman silently perform the story from the pitcher's point of view.

As long as there is someone who knows what a baseball is, there will be someone reading or reciting "Casey At The Bat". Someone like Penn Gillette who reads with drama, emotion, and as Teller makes progress escaping, Penn reads the mighty poem with increasing speed, practically racing as his partner seems ready to escape. And if the esteemed Mr. Thayer will forgive the poetic license:

"Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright, The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light, And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout; But there is no joy for Penn Gillette - silent Teller has jumped out."

[GaryMrMets]

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The History of "Casey At The Bat"
The poem, "Casey At The Bat" has almost as rich a history as the game of baseball itself. While it's initial publication on June 3, 1888 precedes the "modern age" of baseball, the emotions and the suspense portrayed in the poem are as real today as they were 114 years ago. That, in part, speaks to the magnificence of the piece.

The story of "Casey At The Bat" begins with George Hearst, a United States Senator from California from 1887 until his death in 1891, who had acquired the small San Francisco Examiner as a repayment for a gambling debt. His son, William Randolph Hearst, upon his graduation from Harvard College, where he had been editor of The Harvard Lampoon, took over the responsibility of The Examiner. Hearst brought with him three members of the Lampoon staff; Eugene Lent, F. H. Briggs, and Ernest L. Thayer. Thayer wrote a humor column for the Examiner using the pseudonym of "Phin," his college nickname of Phinney. On June 3, 1888, supposedly on page 4 of the Sunday edition of The Examiner, reportedly for a grandiose sum of $5, a poem entitled "Casey at the Bat, a Ballad of The Republic" appeared over the name "Phin".

It was met with practically no accolades. In fact, the only response to its publication was the reprinting of the last eight stanzas in one of New York City's newspapers, the New York Sun a few weeks later with the author listed as "Anonymous".

Then the novelist Archibald Clavering Gunter entered the picture. In today's world of high finance baseball, Gunter would most likely have served as Casey's agent. Gunter in his travels was always looking for something interesting and apparently cut out the poem when it was first published in The Examiner and put it in a file as something that might prove to be fodder for a future novel.

"Casey" remained in Gunter's files until August of that year when Gunter read that the Chicago White Stockings (now known as the Chicago Cubs) and the New York Giants (now known as the San Francisco Giants) would be attending a performance of the comedian, De Wolf Hopper, at Wallack's Theater (Broadway and 30th Street, the current location of Macy's) in New York City. Gunter and Hopper were good friends and Gunter gave Hopper the clipping of "Casey" and suggested that the baseball teams would enjoy a recitation.

Reportedly earlier that August 14, 1888 day Hopper, a big baseball fan, had attended the game between Chicago and New York at the old Polo Grounds and that evening Chicago stars like Cap Anson and Hugh Duffy, and Giant stars like John Montgomery Ward and Buck Ewing joined with the New York elite for this black-tie performance of Hopper and "Casey". In his memoir "Once a Clown Always a Clown, Hopper wrote of this first reading, "When I dropped my voice to B flat, below low C, at 'but one scornful look from Casey, and the audience was awed,' I remember seeing Buck Ewing's gallant mustachios give a single nervous twitch."

While Casey, as per usual, struck out, Hopper had homered. The New York World newspaper reported, "The audience literally went wild with enthusiasm." Hopper and "Casey" were such a huge success that three people immediately claimed to be the anonymous author, Phin, in the hopes of getting Hooper to give them royalties for the performance of the poem. None could provide legitimate authorship and Hopper kept it in the act. A number of years later, however, Thayer attended Hopper's performance in Worcester, Massachusetts. He gave Hopper the rights to perform "Casey" without having to pay royalties in part because in spite of the enormous popularity of the ballad, Thayer considered it a minor accomplishment.

But "Casey" had a major league impact on the American public who embraced the poem and embraced Hopper, who estimated he performed "Casey" over 10,000 times. Little could Thayer have imagined the impact his poem would have on audiences over the last 114 years as "Casey At The Bat" has found its place in the batting order of the most famous of all American poems.

Like baseball itself, "Casey At The Bat" is shared from generation to generation. Hall-of-Fame pitcher and baseball raconteur, Dizzy Dean said, "Let the teachers learn the kids English. Ol' Diz will learn the kids baseball." The mighty "Casey" does both.

Compiled by Bill Chuck.

[GaryMrMets]

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In the Clubhouse with "Casey"
Since its publication on June 3, 1888, Ernest L. Thayer's "Casey at the Bat, A Ballad of the Republic" has become an integral part of the fabric of our culture. Here is more than you need to know about America's classic poem.

• It has been reported that at actor/comedian De Wolf Hopper's initial presentation of "Casey" that somewhere in the second act of his performance of, "Prince Methusalem," a Johann Strauss operetta, Hopper departed from the text and inserted, "Casey at the Bat." How he did this remains a mystery.

• The day that Hopper first performed "Casey," reportedly Chicago White Stockings beat New York Giants 4-2 in the game that was played earlier that day; that was the same score that was in the poem.

• One report indicates that the real "Casey" was Thayer's schoolmate at Worcester Classical High School, Daniel Casey.

• There are those who say that Casey is modeled after a Stockton, California ballplayer named John Cahill (lifetime batting average of .205 for three seasons in the 1880's). Stockton has also been referred to as "Mudville." Legend has it that Thayer saw a California League game in the spring of 1888 in Stockton. Reportedly, like the poem, the league had players named Barrows, Flynn and Cooney.

• For two seasons (2000-2001) the Stockton Ports were named the Mudville Nine.

• Some believe that "Mudville" referred to Boston's Back Bay as Thayer was from Worcester and went to school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• Thayer graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard in 1885.

• De Wolf Hopper, the most famous performer of "Casey at the Bat" was married six times. His fifth wife was Hedda Hopper, the Hollywood gossip columnist. Their son was William Hopper who played Paul Drake on the Perry Mason television series.

• In the sixth season of the CBS television show, "Northern Exposure," there was an episode entitled, "The Graduate"; in this show, one of the lead character's (Chris) thesis dissertation was, "Casey at the Bat - an Anti-Filiopietistic Metaphor for America's Role in Post-Cold-War-Geo-Politics."

• In the famous lawsuit, "Flood v Kuhn," which initially challenged baseball's reserve clause, Supreme Court Justice Harry Backmun makes reference to "Casey at the Bat".

• The Library of Congress lists on-line 39 "Casey at the Bat" titles in their collection.

• In 1908, S.P. Clarence McDonald published "Casey - Twenty Years Later," in The San Francisco Examiner, in which Casey hit a game-winning homer for Bugville.

• In 1967, famed mathematician Martin Gardner served as the editor of The Annotated Casey at the Bat. It contains 29 different versions, parodies and sequels to the poem.

• In 1989, esteemed sports writer, Frank Deford released the novel, "Casey on the Loose, What Really Might Have Happened" in which he reveals what led up to Casey's strikeout and what happened after.

• Amazon.com lists 18 "Casey at the Bat" titles including "Casey at the Bat" illustrated by LeRoy Neiman with an introduction by Joe Torre, published May, 2002.

• In The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, published in the year 2000, the authors provide the following usage note for the word "former": "Grammarians have often insisted that the phrases the former and the latter should be used only to refer to the first of two things and the second of two things, respectively, as in Ernest L. Thayer's "Casey at the Bat": "But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake, and the former was a lulu and the latter was a fake."

• On July 11, 1996, the United States Postal Service released a 32¢ stamp entitled "The Mighty Casey" as part of a block of four stamps saluting American Folk Heroes: John Henry, Paul Bunyan, Mighty Casey and Pecos Bill.

• Greg Lundeen's bronze sculpture, "Mighty Casey," depicts a life-size Casey leaning on his bat is on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY.

• Esteemed Russian/American painter Morris Kantor's painting, "Baseball At Night," depicts the final scene in "Casey At The Bat".

• Coincidentally, Chuck Connors who often performed "Casey" for his Dodger and Cubs teammates on the bus before going on to fame as TV's "The Rifleman" and Jerry Colonna who provided the voice over in the classic Disney cartoon are both buried in San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, California.

• De Wolfe Hopper died September 23, 1935.

• Ernest L. Thayer died August 21, 1940.

• The Mighty Casey lives to this day.

Compiled by Bill Chuck.

[GaryMrMets]

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By LeRoy Neiman (Illustrator), Ernest Thayer
HarperTrade

There are many wonderful things we can suggest as Father's Day presents (MLB.com Total Ticket for one) but we would like to suggest to you a new edition of "Casey At The Bat" with illustrations by LeRoy Neiman and an introduction by Yankee Manager Joe Torre.

While most of you are familiar with Neiman's vibrant colors this book exudes motion, power and emotion through his charcoal drawings. What makes these drawings particularly approachable for young fans is the modern context in which they are drawn. Instead of seeing scenes from the 1880's, readers will see drawings that evoke the rippling muscles of Mickey Mantle, or Mark McGwire and at times it seems as if Bob Gibson or Randy Johnson are on the mound. The drawings are strong and powerful and you cannot help but feel the visceral impact of Casey's final swing.

The introduction by New York Yankees manager Joe Torre is a message to children to draw strength from what appears to be failure. Torre shares, "It's important for players to understand, "Hey I didn't lose, he beat me this time." You've got to tip your hat to the guy once in a while." Torre continues in this brief introduction to talk about how good pitching stops good hitting and in the process throws around names like Pedro Martinez, Babe Ruth and Mark McGwire. Torre's words add modern context to the book but it is the prose of Ernest Thayer that is the finest writing in this book.

But, the best reason that this edition of "Casey at the Bat" is a great Father's Day present is for the future. This wonderful poem will be around for many years to come and someday some daughter or son will talk about when they first heard "Casey" and think back to sharing with their father and see in their minds LeRoy Neiman's drawings.

And on that day, there will be joy in Mudville.

Review by Bill Chuck.

[Baseball Guru]

I actually have a great rendition of this done by James Earl Jones

[GaryMrMets]

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Casey At The Bat
By Ernest Lawrence Thayer

Taken From the San Francisco Examiner - June 3, 1888
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 pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, "If only Casey could but get a whack at that -
We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat."

But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,
And the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a cake;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat;
For there seemed but little chance of Casey getting to the bat.

But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Blake, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and men saw what had occurred,
There was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third.

Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It pounded on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.

There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile lit Casey's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat.

Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt.
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance flashed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip.

And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped -
"That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one!" the umpire said.

From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore;
"Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted some one on the stand;
And it's likely they'd have killed him had not Casey raised his hand.

With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the dun sphere flew;
But Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said "Strike two!"

"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered "Fraud!"
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again.

The sneer has fled from Casey's lip, the teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville - mighty Casey has struck out.