A Baseball Institution Is Turning 100

[Valadius]

"Take Me Out To The Ball Game" turns 100 next year:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071113&content_id=2299367&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

[seawolf17]

I thought this was going to be another Julio Franco joke.

[stevejrogers]

I thought it was going to be a crack on the anniversary of the last Cubs World Championship!

[Valadius]

It could have been.

But did you know that what we've come to know as "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" is actually only the chorus of the song? There's more to it!

]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:" 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: (Repeat chorus.) * A "sou" was common slang at the time for a low-denomination coin.

[stevejrogers]

Also written by two men who had never seen a baseball game in their lives at that point, lyrics were written after seeing a subway advertisement for a Giants game at the Polo Grounds.