"Casey at the Bat" as it first appeared, June 3, 1888
"Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic, Sung in the Year 1888" is amock-heroic poem written in 1888 byErnest Thayer. It was first published anonymously inThe San Francisco Examiner (then calledThe Daily Examiner) on June 3, 1888, under thepen name "Phin", based on Thayer's college nickname, "Phinney".[1] Featuring a dramatic narrative about abaseball game, the poem was later popularized byDeWolf Hopper in manyvaudeville performances.[2][3] It has become one of the best-known poems inAmerican literature.
A baseball team from the fictional town of "Mudville" (the home team) is losing by tworuns in its last inning. Both the team and its fans, a crowd of 5,000, believe that they can win if Casey, Mudville's star player, gets to bat. However, Casey is scheduled to be the fifth batter of the inning, and the first two batters (Cooney and Barrows) fail to get on base. The next two batters (Flynn and Jimmy Blake) are perceived to be weak hitters with little chance of reaching base to allow Casey a chance to bat.
Surprisingly, Flynn hits a single, and Blake follows with a double that allows Flynn to reach third base. Both runners are now inscoring position and Casey represents the potential winning run. Casey is so sure of his abilities that he does not swing at the first two pitches, both called strikes. On the last pitch, the overconfident Caseystrikes out swinging, ending the game and sending the crowd home unhappy.
The text is filled with references to baseball as it was in 1888, which in many ways is not far removed from today's version. As a work, the poem encapsulates much of the appeal of baseball, including the involvement of the crowd. It also has a fair amount of baseball jargon that can pose challenges for the uninitiated.
This is the complete poem as it originally appeared inThe Daily Examiner. After publication, various versions with minor changes were produced.
No one imagines that 'Casey' is great in the sense that the poetry ofShakespeare orDante is great; a comicballad obviously must be judged by different standards. One doesn’t criticize a slice of superb apple pie because it fails to taste likecrepes suzette. Thayer was only trying to write a comic ballad, with clanking rhymes and a vigorous beat, that could be read quickly, understood at once, and laughed at by any newspaper reader who knew baseball. Somehow, in harmony with the curious laws of humor and popular taste, he managed to produce thenation's best-known piece ofcomic verse—a ballad that began a nativelegend as colorful and permanent as that ofJohnny Appleseed orPaul Bunyan.
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 sickly 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 get but a whack at that – they'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 lulu and the latter was a cake, so upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat, for there seemed but little chance of Casey's 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 the 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 knocked upon 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 on 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 gleamed 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 someone 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 spheroid 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 is gone from Casey's lip, his 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 somewhere children shout; but there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.
Thayer said he chose the name "Casey" after a non-player of Irish ancestry he once knew named Daniel H. Casey;[4][5] it is open to debate whom, if anyone, he modeled the character after. It has been reported that Thayer's best friendSamuel Winslow, who played baseball atHarvard, was the inspiration for Casey.[6][7][8]
Another classmate of Thayer at Harvard—Edward Terry Sanford—also has been put forward as a possible model for Casey, in part on the ground that Thayer and Sanford were both members of a student group at Harvard (the OK Society) that played some baseball in the mid-1880s. Sanford would go on to a distinguished career in the law, culminating in his appointment to theSupreme Court of the United States in 1923.[9]
Another candidate is National League playerMike "King" Kelly, who became famous whenBoston paidChicago a record $10,000 for him. He had a personality that fans liked to cheer or jeer. After the 1887 season, Kelly went on a playing tour to San Francisco. Thayer, who wrote "Casey" in 1888, covered the San Francisco leg for theSan Francisco Examiner.
Thayer, in a letter he wrote in 1905, mentions Kelly as showing "impudence" in claiming to have written the poem. The author of the 2004 definitive biography of Kelly—which included a close tracking of his vaudeville career—did not find Kelly claiming to have been the author.[10]: 9
"Casey at the Bat" was first published inThe Daily Examiner on June 3, 1888.
A month after the poem was published, it was reprinted as "Kelly at the Bat" in theNew York Sporting Times.[11]Aside from omitting the first five verses, the only changes from the original are substitutions of Kelly for Casey, andBoston for Mudville.[12]King Kelly, then of theBoston Beaneaters, was one of baseball's two biggest stars at the time (along withCap Anson).[10]: 9
In 1897, the magazineCurrent Literature noted the two versions and said, "The locality, as originally given, is Mudville, not Boston; the latter was substituted to give the poem local color."[13]
1909 theatrical poster with DeWolf Hopper in A Matinee Idol
DeWolf Hopper gave the poem's first stagerecitation on August 14, 1888, atNew York'sWallack Theatre as part of thecomic operaPrinz Methusalem in the presence of the ChicagoWhite Stockings and New YorkGiants baseball teams; August 14, 1888 was also Thayer's 25th birthday. Hopper became known as an orator of the poem, and recited it more than 10,000 times (by his count—some tabulations are as much as four times higher) before his death.[1]
"It is as perfect anepitome of our national game today as it was when every player drank his coffee from amustache cup. There are one or more Caseys in everyleague,bush or big, and there is no day in the playing season that this same supremetragedy, as stark asAristophanes for the moment, does not befall on some field."[1]
On stage in the early 1890s, baseball star Kelly recited the original "Casey" a few dozen times and not the parody. For example, in a review in 1893 of a variety show he was in, theIndianapolis News said, "Many who attended the performance had heard of Kelly's singing and his reciting, and many had heard De Wolf Hopper recite 'Casey at the Bat' in his inimitable way. Kelly recited this in a sing-song, school-boy fashion." Upon Kelly's death, a writer would say he gained "considerable notoriety by his ludicrous rendition of 'Casey at the Bat,' with which he concluded his 'turn' [act] at each performance."[10]: 229
During the 1980s, the magic/comedy teamPenn & Teller performed a version of "Casey at the Bat" with Teller (the "silent" partner) struggling to escape astraitjacket while suspended upside-down over a platform of sharp steel spikes. The set-up was thatPenn Jillette would leap off his chair upon finishing the poem, releasing the rope which supported Teller, and send Teller to a gruesome death if Teller had failed to free himself by that time. Jillette enhanced the drama of the performance by drastically accelerating the pace of his recital after the first few stanzas, greatly reducing the time that Teller had left to work free from his bonds.
DeWolf Hopper's more famous recorded recitation was released in October 1906.
In 1946,Walt Disney released a recording of the narration of the poem byJerry Colonna, which accompanied the studio'sanimated cartoon adaptation of the poem (see below).
In 1973, theCincinnati Symphony Orchestra commissioned its former Composer-in-Residence,Frank Proto, to create a work to feature Baseball Hall-of-FamerJohnny Bench with the orchestra. The result "Casey At The Bat – an American Folk Tale for Narrator and Orchestra" was an immediate hit and recorded by Bench and the orchestra. It has since been performed more than 800 times by nearly every major and Metropolitan orchestra in the U.S. and Canada.
On a 1997 CD set with memorable moments and stories from the game of baseball titledTake Me Out to the Ball Game produced by Jerry Hoffman and Douglas Duer, aVincent Price oration of the poem is a slightly altered version of the original.[16]
In 1998, actorSir Derek Jacobi recorded the poem with composer/arrangerRandol Alan Bass and the National Symphony of London, with the composer conducting. This work, titled "Casey at the Bat", has been recorded by the Boston Pops Orchestra, Keith Lockhart conducting.[17]In 2013,Dave Jageler andCharlie Slowes, both radio announcers for theWashington Nationals, each made recordings of the poem for theLibrary of Congress to mark the 125th anniversary of its first publication.[18]
A rivalry of sorts has developed between two cities claiming to be the Mudville described in the poem.[19]
Holliston, Massachusetts – Mudville Village, Statue and Plaque Dedicated to "Casey" of "Casey at the Bat"Holliston, Massachusetts – Mudville Village, Welcome Sign
Residents ofHolliston, Massachusetts, where there is a neighborhood called Mudville, claim it as the Mudville described in the poem. Thayer grew up in nearbyWorcester, Massachusetts, where he wrote the poem in 1888; his family owned a wool mill less than 1 mi (1.6 km) from Mudville's baseball field.
However, residents ofStockton, California—which was known for a time as Mudville prior to incorporation in 1850—also lay claim to being the inspiration for the poem. In 1887, Thayer covered baseball forThe Daily Examiner—owned by his Harvard classmateWilliam Randolph Hearst—and is said to have covered the localCalifornia League team, theStockton Ports.[20] For the1902 season, after the poem became popular, Stockton's team was renamed the Mudville Nine.[21] The team reverted to the Mudville Nine moniker for the 2000 and 2001 seasons. TheVisalia Rawhide, another California League team, currently keeps Mudville alive playing in Mudville jerseys on June 3 each year.[citation needed]
Despite the towns' rival claims, Thayer himself told theSyracuse Post-Standard that "the poem has no basis in fact."[1]
Ralph Andreano's 1965 book,No Joy in Mudville, laments the death of heroes in modern baseball.
In the bookFaithful by Steward O'Nan andStephen King, describing the 2004 season of the Boston Red Sox, a chapter contributed by King is named "The Gloom is gone from Mudville".
Wallace Tripp illustrated a popular 1978 book of the poem.
Kurtis Scaletta's 2009 children's novel,Mudville, is about a town where it has been raining for 22 years, delaying a baseball game between two rival towns.
Marvel Comics published a spoof in August 1969, in the 9th issue ofNot Brand Echh, featuring parodies of their popular heroes and villains, and the Bulk (parody of theHulk) as Casey.
DC Comics' seriesFables from theVertigo Comics imprint featured an adaptation titled "Out to the Ball Game", which features a similar baseball match, with Weyland Smith playing the part of Casey against a team of goblins.
Walt Disney Productions produced anAnimated Segment adaptation of the poem for the filmMake Mine Music (1946) and uses the original text, but is set in 1902 according to the opening song's lyrics, instead of 1888. This version is recited byJerry Colonna. It was later released as an individual short on July 16, 1954. A sequel short was also producedCasey Bats Again and released on June 18, 1954.
A 1976 animated short adaptation, featuring narration byPaul Frees, was released in 1976 by Fine Arts Films.[23]
InThe Dream Team (1989),Michael Keaton's character announces that "there is no joy in Mudville" after giving a fellow mental patient three "strikes" for psychotic behavior.
Jackie Gleason in his "Reginald Van Gleason III" persona (in full Mudville baseball uniform) performed a recitation of the poem on hisAnd Awaaaay We Go! album.
Season 1, episode 35 ofThe Twilight Zone, "The Mighty Casey", concerns a baseball player who is actually a robot (June 17, 1960).
InGeneral Hospital,Steve Hardy performs the poem during the 1994 Nurses' Ball while dressed in a Mudville baseball uniform. He concludes by telling the audience not to worry because Casey is married to the Mudville owner's daughter.
InHow I Met Your Mother, the episode "Bedtime Stories" (which is done entirely in rhymes) features a subplot called"Mosby At The Bat". The start of that section of the episode begins with "The outlook wasn't brilliant for poor Ted's romantic life", a line based on the opening of the original poem.[25]
InOne Tree Hill, season 8 episode "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" was a flashback-heavy episode revolving around a baseball game withJamie Scott narrating the poem throughout.
Art-song composerSidney Homer turned the poem into a song. Sheet music was published by G. Schirmer in 1920 as part ofSix Cheerful Songs to Poems of American Humor.
William Schuman composed an opera,The Mighty Casey (1953), based on the poem.
The song "Centerfield" byJohn Fogerty includes the line "Well, I spent some time in the Mudville Nine, watchin' it from the bench. You know I took some lumps when the Mighty Casey struck out."
The song "No Joy In Pudville" bySteroid Maximus is a reference to this poem.
Joe Walsh's 1973 song "Rocky Mountain Way" features the lyrics "Bases are loaded/ And Casey's at bat/ Playin' it play-by-play/ Time to change the batter."
In 2008 American composer Randol Alan Bass used the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" by Alfred Von Tilzer and Jack Norworth inCasey at the Bat, a setting of the poem for concert band and narrator.[26]
For a relatively short poem apparently dashed off quickly (and denied by its author for years), "Casey at the Bat" had a profound effect on American popular culture. It has beenrecited, re-enacted,adapted, dissected, parodied, and subjected to just about every other treatment one could imagine.[1]
"Casey's Revenge", byGrantland Rice (1907), gives Casey another chance against the pitcher who had struck him out in the original story. It was written in 1906, and its first known publication was in the quarterly magazineThe Speaker in June 1907, under the pseudonym of James Wilson.[27] In this version, Rice cites the nickname "Strike-Out Casey", hence the influence onCasey Stengel's name. Casey's team is downthree runs by the last of the ninth, and once again Casey is down to two strikes—with the bases full this time. However, he connects, and hits the ball so far that it is never found.
"Casey - Twenty Years Later", by Clarence P. McDonald (1908), imagines a different redemption for Casey, long after his retirement. The poem, which was indeed published twenty years after the original, in the San Francisco Examiner, sees Casey attending a championship game between the fictional team of "Bugville" and an unspecified opponent.[28] In a losing effort, Bugville's players are benched and injured throughout the game, until the captain is forced to call for a volunteer from the attendees. An aged Casey answers the call and fills the role surprisingly well, culminating with him hitting the game-winning home run, in his first swing at bat. He then reveals his identity to the joyous fans and players.
In response to the popularity of the 1946 Walt Disney animated adaptation, Disney made a sequel,Casey Bats Again (1954), in which Casey's nine daughters redeem his reputation.
In 1988, on the 100th anniversary of the poem,Sports Illustrated writerFrank Deford constructed a fanciful story (later expanded to book form) for what happened before and after the famous ball game.[29]
Of the manyparodies made of the poem, some of the notable ones include:
Mad magazine republished the original version of the poem in the 1950s with artwork byJack Davis and no alterations to the text. Later lampoons inMad included "'Cool' Casey at the Bat" (1960), an interpretation of the poem inbeatnik style, with artwork byDon Martin although the ending still has Casey striking out; "Casey at the Dice" in 1969, about a professional gambler; "Casey at the Contract Talks" in 1974 (which ends with the owner telling Casey to "practice hard at home this year 'cause now you've struck out twice"); Casey at the Talks" in 1977, a "modern" version of the famed poem in which Mudville tries unsuccessfully to sign free agent Casey [the last line of which is "Mighty Casey has held out"]; "Baseball at the Bat", a satire on baseball itself, "Howard at the Mike", aboutHoward Cosell; "Casey at the Byte" (1985), a tale of a cocky young computer expert who accidentally erases the White House Budget Plan; "Clooney as the Bat", a mockery ofGeorge Clooney's role asBatman inBatman and Robin; and in 2006 as "Barry at the Bat", poking fun atBarry Bonds' alleged involvement in theBALCO scandal; in 2001, "Jordan at the Hoop", satirizingMichael Jordan's return to the NBA and his time with theWashington Wizards; and in 2012, "Casey at the Trial", satirizing Casey Anthony's acquittal in the case ofthe death of her daughter Caylee. It also includes a "Poetry Round Robin" where famous poems are rewritten in the style of the next poet in line, featured Casey at the Bat as written byEdgar Allan Poe.
SportswriterLeonard Koppett claimed in a 1979 tongue-in-cheek article that the published poem omits 18 lines penned by Thayer, which changed the overall theme of the poem. Koppett added lines, claiming to have transcribed them off an old phonograph recording, that take the pitch count on Casey to full. Meanwhile, his uncle Arnold stirs up wagering action in the stands, before a wink passes between them. Casey throws the game.[30]
Foster Brooks ("the Lovable Lush" from theDean Martin Show) wrote "Riley on the Mound", which recounts the story from the pitcher's perspective.[2][31]
In his 1987 Baseball Abstract,Bill James published "Casey Chases A Knuckler", which employed a five-line stanza and AAAAB structure, about former MLB knuckleball pitcherCharlie Hough
Author Phil Bolsta penned a parody entitled "Hrbek at the Bat"[32] about Twins sluggerKent Hrbek which was published in 1987 in the Minneapolis Review of Baseball.
Radio performerGarrison Keillor's parodic version of the poem[33] reimagines the game as a road game, instead of a home game, for the Mudville team. The same events occur with Casey striking out in the ninth inning as in the original poem, but with everything told from the perspective of other team.
An episode ofTiny Toon Adventures featured a short titled "Buster at the Bat", whereSylvester provides narration as Buster goes up to bat. The poem was parodied again for an episode ofAnimaniacs, this time withWakko as the title character and Yakko narrating. Both versions end on a happier note with the main character hitting a home run.
In the fourth season ofGarfield and Friends the episode entitled "Mind Over Matter/Orson at the Bat/Multiple Choice Cartoon" features Wade Duck narrating a parody of the poem as Orson Pig experiences it in a dream sequence.
InThe Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius episode "Return of the Nanobots", Cindy's poem is identical to the ending of "Casey at the Bat" but replaces Mudville with Retroville and the last famed line with "cause Jimmy is an idiot!"
The New York Times published a parody by Hart Seely andFrank Cammuso in which the poem was narrated byPhil Rizzuto, aNew York Yankees announcer who was known to veer off on tangents while calling the game. The poem was later published in Seely and Cammuso's book,2007 Eleven And Other American Comedies.
David Pogue penned a parody version titled 'A Desktop Critic: Steven Saves the Mac' forMacworld magazine that ran in their October 1999 issue.[34] It tells the story ofSteve Jobs' triumphant return to a strugglingApple Inc and his early efforts to reverse the company's fortunes.
Dick Flavin wrote a version titled Teddy at the Bat, afterBoston Red Sox legendTed Williams died in July 2002. Flavin performed the poem atFenway Park during the night-long tribute to Williams done at the park later that month. The poem replaced Flynn and Blake withBobby Doerr andJohnny Pesky, the batters who preceded Williams in the 1946 Red Sox lineup.
Norman Jackman wrote a reversed-outcome version in 1951 called "Bobby Thomson at the Bat," which went unknown for over 60 years until theSan Francisco Giants published it in 2012.[35] It's aboutThomson's famous home run in a 1951 Giant-Dodger playoff game. In 2016, the poem was accepted into the poetry files of the National Baseball Library and Archive of theHall of Fame.
Canadian comedy duoWayne and Shuster created "Shakespearean Baseball", featuringWilliam Shakespeare-esque characters and dialogue in a skit based upon the poem. They performed the play onThe Ed Sullivan Show and on Canadian TV numerous times between the 1950s and 1980s.
Baseball writer andVillanova professor Mitchell Nathanson updated the poem for contemporary times in 2019, publishing "Casey @ the Bat" inThe Washington Post.[37]
There are three known translations of the poem into a foreign language, one in French, written in 2007 by French Canadian linguist Paul Laurendeau, with the titleCasey au bâton, and two in Hebrew. One by the sports journalist Menachem Less titled "התור של קייסי לחבוט" [Hator Shel Casey Lachbot],[38] and the other more recent and more true to the original cadence and style by Jason H. Elbaum called קֵיסִי בַּמַּחְבֵּט [Casey BaMachbayt].[39]
Casey Stengel describes in his autobiography how his original nickname "K.C." (for his hometown,Kansas City, Missouri) evolved into "Casey". It was influenced not just by the name of the poem, which was widely popular in the 1910s, but also because he tended to strike out frequently in his early career so fans and writers started calling him "strikeout Casey".[40]
The poem is referenced in theSuper Nintendo Entertainment System gameEarthBound, where a weapon is named the Casey Bat, which is the strongest weapon in the game, but will only hit 25% of the time.
A recurring character in thePokémon anime, a girl who is a very enthusiastic fan of baseball, is named "Casey" in the English version in reference to the poem.[41]
Season 1, episode 35 ofThe Twilight Zone was named "The Mighty Casey" in reference to the poem's lead character, though the plot is unrelated.
A third-season episode ofStorm Chasers was titled "Sean Casey At Bat". The episode featured Casey (a chaser) intercepting a tornado for the first time in TIV 2.
In the showFriends, Ross clarifies how to spell "Casey" as in "at the bat" in the Season 2, episode 14 titled "The One with the Prom Video."[42]
In the showContainment, Season 1, episode 6 takes its name, "He Stilled the Rising Tumult", from the poem.
Casey's Corner is a baseball-themed restaurant inWalt Disney World'sMagic Kingdom, which serves primarily hotdogs. Pictures of Casey and the pitcher from the Disney animated adaptation are hanging on the walls, and a life-size statue of a baseball player identified as "Casey" stands just outside the restaurant. Additionally, the scoreboard in the restaurant shows that Mudville lost to the visitors by two runs.
A hot dog restaurant featuring the Disney character can be found atDisneyland Paris'Disneyland Park since its opening in 1992, under the name Casey's Corner.
^Ross E. Davies,Casey at the Bat and the Supreme Court (Green Bag Press 2024), chapter 6.
^abcRosenberg, Howard W. (2004).Cap Anson 2: The Theatrical and Kingly Mike Kelly: U.S. Team Sport's First Media Sensation and Baseball's Original Casey at the Bat. Tile Books.ISBN0-9725574-1-5.
^"Casey At The Bat".Casey at the Bat – James Earl Jones. YouTube. Archived fromthe original on September 3, 2012. RetrievedJune 3, 2011.
^1998 CD: Play Ball! – Erich Kunzel – Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Recorded 1996 with Arranger/Composer Steven Reineke and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra (insert credits) –https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000064U5
^Wilson, John,Casey at the Bat (Animation, Short), Fine Arts Films, retrievedDecember 30, 2021
^Grams, Martin (February 27, 2008).Radio drama : a comprehensive chronicle of American network programs, 1932-1962. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland.ISBN9780786438716.OCLC188535974.
Caseyatthe.blog is a site dedicated to preserving and promoting the literary legacy of "Casey at the Bat" and the biography of "Casey's" author, Ernest Lawrence Thayer
Casey at the Bat,Garrison Keillor withRich Dworsky,Prairie Home Companion, 5:29, July 14, 2013
Casey at the Bat public domain audiobook atLibriVox