Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Take me out to the ball game

Take me out to 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 its, one, two, three strikes you’re out,

At the old ball game.  

As the unofficial anthem of North American baseball, these lyrics are familiar enough to most of us who have gone to a professional North American baseball game. It is one of the most recognizable parts of the classic American pastimes, sung at or around the seventh inning of many professional baseball games or otherwise. There have been many renditions of it over time, “home team” often being replaced with the name of the team someone roots for. The truth is that we only sing the chorus of the original song (which was first sung and recorded by Edward Meeker in 1908, and written by composer Albert Von Tilzer and lyricist Jack Norworth). There are many answers for this but the original goes as follows:  

Katie Casey was baseball mad,

Had the fever and had it bad.

Just 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 Katie said

“No, I’ll tell you when you can do:”  

Take me out to the ball game

Take me out to 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 its, one, two, three strikes you’re, out

At the old ball game.  

Katie Casey saw all the games,

Knew all 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 the boys she knew, she made them sing this song:  

Take me out to the ball game

Take me out to 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 its, one, two, three strikes you’re out,

At the old ball game.  

In 1927, the lyrics were changed, including the name of the woman referred to originally as “Katie Casey,” but the sentiment is still the same. The song is about a young woman who did not want to do “stereotypical girl things,” she wanted to go to a baseball game. Guess this is yet another friendly neighborhood (fellow earth dweller) reminder that not everything is as you know it.

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