Casey al bate

Baseball poem written during 1888 by Ernest Thayer

Este artículo trata sobre el poema. Para otros usos, vea Casey at the Bat (desambiguación) .

Tim Wiles, ex Director de Investigación de la Biblioteca del Salón de la Fama del Béisbol en Cooperstown , con frecuencia se viste como Casey para recitar el poema.

" Casey al bate: una balada de la República cantada en el año 1888 " es un poema de béisbol escrito en 1888 por Ernest Thayer . Publicado por primera vez en The San Francisco Examiner (entonces llamado The Daily Examiner ) el 3 de junio de 1888, más tarde fue popularizado por DeWolf Hopper en muchas representaciones de vodevil . ^{[1] [2]} Se ha convertido en uno de los poemas más conocidos de la literatura estadounidense . El poema se publicó originalmente de forma anónima (bajo el seudónimo "Phin", basado en el apodo universitario de Thayer, "Phinney"). ^[3]

Sinopsis

Un equipo de béisbol de la ciudad ficticia de "Mudville" (el equipo local) está perdiendo por dos carreras en su última entrada. Tanto el equipo como sus fanáticos, una multitud de 5,000, creen que pueden ganar si Casey, el jugador estrella de Mudville, llega a batear. Sin embargo, está programado que Casey sea el quinto bateador de la entrada, y los dos primeros bateadores (Cooney y Barrows) no llegan a la base. Los siguientes dos bateadores (Flynn y Jimmy Blake) se perciben como bateadores débiles con pocas posibilidades de llegar a la base para permitirle a Casey batear.

Sorprendentemente, Flynn conecta un sencillo y Blake lo sigue con un doble que le permite a Flynn llegar a la tercera base. Ambos corredores están ahora en posición de anotar y Casey representa la carrera ganadora potencial. Casey está tan seguro de sus habilidades que no hace swing en los dos primeros lanzamientos, ambos llamados strikes. En el último lanzamiento, Casey, demasiado confiado, se poncha con un swing , termina el juego y envía a la multitud a casa infeliz.

Texto

	Casey al bate Recitado por DeWolf Hopper , c. 1920.
¿Problemas al reproducir este archivo? Consulte la ayuda de medios .

El texto está lleno de referencias al béisbol como lo era en 1888, lo que en muchos sentidos no se aleja mucho de la versión actual. Como obra, el poema encapsula gran parte del atractivo del béisbol, incluida la participación de la multitud. También tiene una buena cantidad de jerga de béisbol que puede plantear desafíos para los no iniciados.

Este es el poema completo tal como apareció originalmente en The Daily Examiner . Después de la publicación, se produjeron varias versiones con cambios menores.

Nadie imagina que 'Casey' es genial en el sentido de que la poesía de Shakespeare o Dante es genial; una balada cómica obviamente debe ser juzgada con diferentes estándares. Uno no critica una rebanada de excelente tarta de manzana porque no sabe a crepes suzette . Thayer sólo intentaba escribir una balada cómica, con rimas resonantes y un ritmo vigoroso, que cualquier lector de periódicos que supiera béisbol pudiera leer rápidamente, entender de inmediato y reírse de ella. De alguna manera, en armonía con las leyes curiosas de humor y el gusto popular, se las arregló para producir la nación 's pieza más conocida de cómic verso -una balada que comenzó un nativo leyendatan colorido y permanente como el de Johnny Appleseed o Paul Bunyan .

Martin Gardner, Herencia estadounidense ^[3]

El panorama no era brillante para los nueve de Mudville ese día;
el marcador estaba cuatro a dos, con sólo una entrada más por jugar.
Y luego, cuando Cooney murió al principio, y Barrows hizo lo mismo,
un silencio enfermizo cayó sobre los patrocinadores del juego.

Unos pocos rezagados se levantaron para irse en profunda desesperación. Los demás se
aferraron a esa esperanza que brota eternamente en el pecho humano;
pensaron, si Casey pudiera conseguir un golpe en eso,
pondrían incluso el dinero, ahora, con Casey al bate.

Pero Flynn precedió a Casey, al igual que Jimmy Blake,
y el primero era un lulú y el segundo era un pastel,
por lo que sobre esa multitud afligida se sentó una triste melancolía,
porque parecía que había pocas posibilidades de que Casey llegara al bate.

Pero Flynn soltó un sencillo, para asombro de todos,
y Blake, el tan despreciado, arrancó la tapa del balón;
y cuando el polvo se levantó y los hombres vieron lo que había ocurrido,
Jimmy estaba a salvo en la segunda y Flynn abrazándose en la tercera.

Luego de cinco mil gargantas y más se elevó un grito lujurioso;
retumbó por el valle, retumbó en el valle;
golpeó la montaña y retrocedió sobre el piso,
porque Casey, el poderoso Casey, avanzaba hacia el murciélago.

Había tranquilidad en los modales de Casey cuando entró en su lugar;
Había orgullo en el porte de Casey y una sonrisa en el rostro de Casey.
Y cuando, respondiendo a los vítores, se quitó ligeramente el sombrero,
ningún extraño entre la multitud podía dudar de que Casey estaba al bate.

Diez mil ojos estaban sobre él mientras se frotaba las manos con tierra;
cinco mil lenguas aplaudieron cuando se las secó en la camisa.
Luego, mientras el lanzador retorciéndose aporreaba la pelota en su cadera, el
desafío brilló en los ojos de Casey, una mueca curvó el labio de Casey.

Y ahora la esfera cubierta de cuero se precipitó por el aire,
y Casey se quedó mirándola con altiva grandeza allí.
Cerca del robusto bateador, la pelota pasó desapercibida.
"Ese no es mi estilo", dijo Casey. "Strike uno", dijo el árbitro.

De los bancos, ennegrecidos por la gente, se elevó un rugido ahogado,
como el batir de las olas de tormenta en una orilla lejana y de popa.
"¡Mátalo! ¡Mata al árbitro!" gritó alguien en el estrado;
y es probable que lo hubieran matado si Casey no hubiera levantado la mano.

Con una sonrisa de caridad cristiana, el rostro del gran Casey brilló;
calmó el tumulto creciente; ordenó que continuara el juego;
le hizo una señal al lanzador, y una vez más voló el esferoide;
pero Casey aún lo ignoró, y el árbitro dijo: "Strike dos".

"¡Fraude!" gritaron los enloquecidos miles, y Eco respondió al fraude;
pero una mirada desdeñosa de Casey y la audiencia se asombró.
Vieron que su rostro se ponía severo y frío, vieron sus músculos tensarse
y supieron que Casey no dejaría pasar esa pelota de nuevo.

La mueca de desprecio ha desaparecido del labio de Casey, sus dientes están apretados con odio;
golpea con cruel violencia su bate en el plato.
Y ahora el lanzador sostiene la pelota, y ahora la suelta,
y ahora el aire está destrozado por la fuerza del golpe de Casey.

Oh, en algún lugar de esta tierra favorecida el sol brilla intensamente;
la banda está tocando en alguna parte, y en algún lugar los corazones son ligeros,
y en algún lugar los hombres se ríen y los niños gritan;
pero no hay alegría en Mudville, el poderoso Casey se ha puesto en marcha.

Inspiración

Thayer dijo que eligió el nombre "Casey" en honor a un no jugador de ascendencia irlandesa que una vez conoció llamado Daniel H. Casey, ^[4] y está abierto a debatir a quién, si es que alguien, modeló el personaje después. Se ha informado que el mejor amigo de Thayer, Samuel Winslow , quien jugó béisbol en Harvard , fue la inspiración para Casey. ^{[5] [6] [7]}

Otro candidato es el jugador de la Liga Nacional Mike "King" Kelly , quien se hizo famoso cuando Boston pagó a Chicago un récord de $ 10,000 por él. Tenía una personalidad que a los fanáticos les gustaba animar o burlarse. Después de la temporada de 1887, Kelly se fue de gira a San Francisco. Thayer, que escribió "Casey" en 1888, cubrió el tramo de San Francisco para el San Francisco Examiner .

Thayer, en una carta que escribió en 1905, menciona que Kelly mostró "desvergüenza" al afirmar haber escrito el poema. El autor de la biografía definitiva de Kelly de 2004, que incluía un seguimiento detallado de su carrera de vodevil, no encontró a Kelly afirmando haber sido el autor. ^{[8] [8] : 9}

Plagio

Un mes después de la publicación del poema, fue reimpreso como "Kelly at the Bat" en el New York Sporting Times . ^[9] Aparte de omitir los primeros cinco versículos, los únicos cambios del original son sustituciones de Kelly por Casey y Boston por Mudville. ^[10] King Kelly , entonces de los Boston Beaneaters , era una de las dos estrellas más grandes del béisbol en ese momento (junto con Cap Anson ). ^{[8] : 9}

En 1897, la revista Current Literature tomó nota de las dos versiones y dijo: "La localidad, como se indica originalmente, es Mudville, no Boston; esta última fue sustituida para darle al poema un color local". ^[11]

Versión previa a la publicación

El periodista deportivo Leonard Koppett afirmó en un artículo de 1979 que el poema publicado omite 18 líneas escritas por Thayer, que cambian todo el tema del poema. Koppett dijo que la versión completa del poema lleva el recuento de tonos de Casey al máximo. Mientras tanto, su tío Arnold comienza a apostar en las gradas, antes de que un guiño pase entre ellos. Casey lanza el juego. ^[12]

Actuaciones en vivo

Póster teatral de 1909 con DeWolf Hopper en A Matinee Idol

DeWolf Hopper dio la primera recitación escénica del poema el 14 de agosto de 1888 en el Wallack Theatre de Nueva York como parte de la ópera cómica Prinz Methusalem en presencia de los equipos de béisbol de Chicago y Nueva York, los White Stockings y los Giants , respectivamente; El 14 de agosto de 1888 fue también el cumpleaños número 25 de Thayer. Hopper se hizo conocido como un orador del poema y lo recitó más de 10,000 veces (según su recuento, algunas tabulaciones son hasta cuatro veces más altas) antes de su muerte. ^[3]

"Es un epítome tan perfecto de nuestro juego nacional de hoy como lo era cuando cada jugador bebía su café de una taza de bigote . Hay uno o más Casey en cada liga , sea ​​grande o arbustiva , y no hay día en la temporada de juego que esta misma tragedia suprema , tan cruda como Aristófanes por el momento, no ocurre en ningún campo ". ^[3]

En el escenario a principios de la década de 1890, la estrella del béisbol Kelly recitó el "Casey" original unas pocas docenas de veces y no la parodia. Por ejemplo, en una reseña en 1893 de un programa de variedades en el que estaba, el Indianapolis News dijo: "Muchos de los que asistieron a la actuación habían oído hablar del canto y la recitación de Kelly, y muchos habían oído a De Wolf Hopper recitar 'Casey at the Bat' a su manera inimitable. Kelly recitó esto a la manera de un colegial cantando una canción ". Tras la muerte de Kelly, un escritor diría que ganó "considerable notoriedad por su ridícula interpretación de 'Casey at the Bat', con la que concluía su 'turno' [acto] en cada actuación". ^{[8] : 229}

Durante la década de 1980, el equipo de magia / comedia Penn & Teller interpretó una versión de "Casey at the Bat" con Teller (el compañero "silencioso") luchando por escapar de una camisa de fuerza mientras estaba suspendido boca abajo sobre una plataforma de afilados picos de acero. La trampa era que Penn Jillette saltaría de su silla al terminar el poema, soltaría la cuerda que sostenía a Teller y enviaría a su compañero a una muerte espantosa si no estaba libre en ese momento. El drama de la actuación se incrementó un poco después de la tercera o cuarta estrofa, cuando Penn Jillette comenzó a leer el resto del poema mucho más rápido que las estrofas iniciales, reduciendo en gran medida el tiempo que Teller le quedaba para trabajar libre de sus ataduras. .

On July 4, 2008, Jack Williams recited the poem accompanied by the Boston Pops during the annual Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular at Boston's Fourth of July Celebration.

On July 14, 2013, the jam rock band Furthur performed the poem as part of a second-set medley in center field of Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York.^[13]

Recordings

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External video
Casey at the Bat, Garrison Keillor with Rich Dworsky, Prairie Home Companion, 5:29, July 14, 2013

The first recorded version of "Casey at the Bat" was made by Russell Hunting, speaking in a broad Irish accent, in 1893; an 1898 cylinder recording of the text made for the Columbia Graphophone label by Hunting can be accessed from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.

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 by Jerry Colonna, which accompanied the studio's animated cartoon adaptation of the poem (see below).

In 1973, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra commissioned its former Composer-in-Residence, Frank Proto, to create a work to feature Baseball Hall-of-Famer Johnny 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.

In 1980, baseball pitcher Tug McGraw recorded Casey at The Bat—an American Folk Tale for Narrator and Orchestra by Frank Proto with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops.

In 1996, actor James Earl Jones recorded the poem with Arranger/Composer Steven Reineke and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.^[14][15]

On a 1997 CD set with memorable moments and stories from the game of baseball titled Take Me Out to the Ball Game produced by Jerry Hoffman and Douglas Duer, a Vincent Price oration of the poem is a slightly altered version of the original.^[16]

In 1998, actor Sir Derek Jacobi recorded the poem with Composer/Arranger Randol 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 and Charlie Slowes, both radio announcers for the Washington Nationals, each made recordings of the poem for the Library of Congress to mark the 125th anniversary of its first publication.^[18]

Mudville

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 of Holliston, Massachusetts, where there is a neighborhood called Mudville, claim it as the Mudville described in the poem. Thayer grew up in nearby Worcester, 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 of Stockton, 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 for The Daily Examiner—owned by his Harvard classmate William Randolph Hearst—and is said to have covered the local California League team, the Stockton Ports. For the 1902 season, after the poem became popular, Stockton's team was renamed the Mudville Nine. The team reverted to the Mudville Nine moniker for the 2000 and 2001 seasons. The Visalia Rawhide, another California League team, currently keep Mudville alive by playing in Mudville jerseys on June 3 each year.^[20]

Despite the towns' rival claims, Thayer himself told the Syracuse Post-Standard that "the poem has no basis in fact."^[3]

Adaptations

The poem has been adapted to diverse types of media:

Books

• Ralph Andreano's 1965 book, No Joy in Mudville, laments the death of heroes in modern baseball.
• In the book Faithful by Steward O'Nan and Stephen 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.
• Christopher Bing's 2000 children's book, an illustrated version of the original poem by Thayer, won a Caldecott Honor for its line drawing illustrations made to look like newspaper articles from 1888.

Comics

• Marvel Comics published a spoof in August 1969, in the 9th issue of Not Brand Echh, featuring parodies of their popular heroes and villains, and the Bulk (parody of the Hulk) as Casey.
• DC Comics' series Fables from the Vertigo 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.

Film

• In 1922, Lee De Forest recorded DeWolf Hopper reciting the poem in DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on-film process.^[21]
• In 1927, a feature-length silent film Casey at the Bat was released, starring Wallace Beery, Ford Sterling, and ZaSu Pitts. At least three other films based on Thayer's poem preceded this 1927 release: an Edison short in 1899, another short starring Harry T. Morey in 1913, and a five-reel feature starring DeWolf Hopper in 1916.
• Walt Disney produced an animated short adaptation of the poem for the film Make 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 by Jerry Colonna. It was later released as an individual short on July 16, 1954. Several differences from the original text include, but are not limited to; Barrows failing to get on base when he smacks the ball back into the pitcher's mitt, Flynn letting drive a single due to trying to get the bat out of his moustache and Blake getting a double due to an attempt by the visiting team's catcher to set his foot on fire.
• The poem is cited in Frederic Wiseman's documentary High School (1968) by a teacher in a classroom.
• In 1986, Elliott Gould starred as "Casey" in the Shelley Duvall's Tall Tales and Legends adaptation of the story, which also starred Carol Kane, Howard Cosell, Bob Uecker, Bill Macy and Rae Dawn Chong. The screenplay, adapted from the poem, was written by Andy Borowitz and the production was directed by David Steinberg.
• In The 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.
• In 1993 the last paragraph is quoted in the film Short Cuts (by Robert Altman), when Lyle Lovett as Andy Bitkower is calling anonymously Andie MacDowell as Ann Finnigan in minute 01:34:58.
• In the film What Women Want (2000), Mel Gibson's character tries to block out his daughter's thoughts by muttering the poem under his breath.
• The poem is briefly cited in the revised version of Bad News Bears (2005).

Radio

• The poem was adapted for an episode of On Stage that aired on CBS on April 16, 1953. It was written by E. Jack Neuman and starred Elliott Lewis, Cathy Lewis, Hy Averback, Herb Butterfield, Byron Kane, Peter Leeds, Hal March, Howard McNear, and Sidney Miller.^[22]

Television

• Jackie Gleason in his "Reginald Van Gleason III" persona (in full Mudville baseball uniform) performed a recitation of the poem on his And Awaaaay We Go! album.
• Season 1: Episode 35 of The Twilight Zone, "The Mighty Casey", concerns a baseball player who is actually a robot (June 17, 1960).
• The title of season 3: episode 17 of The Simpsons, "Homer at the Bat", is a reference to the poem.
• In the Northern Exposure episode "The Graduate", Chris Stevens gains his Master's degree in Comparative literature by subjecting his assessors to a spirited re-enactment of the poem.
• An episode of Tiny Toon Adventures features a retelling of the poem with Buster Bunny in the title role. However, instead of striking out at the end, he hits a walk off home run.
• An episode of Animaniacs entitled "Jokahontas/Boids on the Hood/Mighty Wakko at the Bat" includes a parody of the poem, featuring Wakko Warner as the leading role, and Yakko as the narrator. Instead of missing, he strikes the ball out of the park and wins the game.
• An episode of the television series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius entitled "Return of the Nanobots" has Cindy Vortex reciting a poem that ends with the lines: "But there is no joy in Retroville, 'cause Jimmy is an idiot."
• In the fourth season of Garfield 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.
• A third-season episode of Storm Chasers was titled "Sean Casey At Bat". The episode featured Casey (a chaser) intercepting a tornado for the first time in TIV 2.
• In How 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.^[23]
• In One Tree Hill, season 8 episode "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" was a flashback-heavy episode revolving around a baseball game with Jamie Scott narrating the poem throughout.
• Magician Rick Lax recited the entire poem while performing a card trick on an episode Penn & Teller: Fool Us.
• Containment (TV series) episode He Stilled the Rising Tumult owes its title to and the text of the 10th stanza was used in the opening sequence.

Music

• Art-song composer Sidney Homer turned the poem into a song. Sheet music was published by G. Schirmer in 1920 as part of Six Cheerful Songs to Poems of American Humor.
• William Schuman composed an opera, The Mighty Casey (1953), based on the poem.
• The song No Joy in Mudville from Death Cab for Cutie's album We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes directly references the poem.
• The song "Centerfield" by John 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 Case struck out."
• The song "No Joy In Pudville" by Steroid 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 in Casey at the Bat, a setting of the poem for concert band and narrator.^[24]

Theatre

• "Casey at the Bat" was adapted into a 1953 opera by American composer William Schuman.
• Allen Feinstein composed an adaptation for orchestra with a narrator.
• An orchestral version was composed by Stephen Simon in 1976 for the US bicentennial; Maestro Classics' has recorded it with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Stephen Simon conducting with Yadu (Dr. Konrad Czynski) narrating.
• An orchestral adaptation by composer Frank Proto has been recorded by the Cincinnati Pops orchestra conducted by Erich Kunzel with baseball star Johnny Bench narrating.
• The Dallas Symphony commissioned an arrangement of "Casey" by Randol Alan Bass in 2001, which he later arranged for concert band.
• A version for wind band and narrator by Donald Shirer based on the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" had its world premiere in July 2008.

Derivations

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 been recited, re-enacted, adapted, dissected, parodied, and subjected to just about every other treatment one could imagine.^[3]

Sequels

"Casey's Revenge", by Grantland 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 magazine The Speaker in June 1907, under the pseudonym of James Wilson.^[25] In this version, Rice cites the nickname "Strike-Out Casey", hence the influence on Casey Stengel's name. Casey's team is down three 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, 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.^[26] 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 writer Frank Deford constructed a fanciful story (later expanded to book form) which posited Katie Casey, the subject of the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", as being the daughter of the famous slugger from the poem.

Parodies

Of the many parodies made of the poem, some of the notable ones include:

• Mad magazine republished the original version of the poem in the 1950s with artwork by Jack Davis and no alterations to the text. Later lampoons in Mad included "'Cool' Casey at the Bat" (1960), an interpretation of the poem in beatnik style, with artwork by Don Martin; "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", about Howard 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 of George Clooney's role as Batman in Batman and Robin; and in 2006 as "Barry at the Bat", poking fun at Barry Bonds' alleged involvement in the BALCO scandal, and in 2001, "Jordan at the Hoop", satirizing Michael Jordan's return to the NBA and his time with the Washington Wizards. 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 by Edgar Allan Poe.
• Foster Brooks ("the Lovable Lush" from the Dean Martin Show) wrote "Riley on the Mound", which recounts the story from the pitcher's perspective. [2]^[27]
• Author Phil Bolsta penned a parody entitled "Hrbek at the Bat"^[28] about Twins slugger Kent Hrbek which was published in 1987 in the Minneapolis Review of Baseball.
• Radio performer Garrison Keillor's parodic version of the poem^[29] 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 of Tiny Toon Adventures featured a short titled "Buster at the Bat", where Sylvester provides narration as Buster goes up to bat. The poem was parodied again for an episode of Animaniacs, this time with Wakko as the title character and Yakko narrating.
• In The 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 and Frank Cammuso in which the poem was narrated by Phil Rizzuto, a New 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' for Macworld magazine that ran in their October 1999 issue.^[30] It tells the story of Steve Jobs' triumphant return to a struggling Apple Inc and his early efforts to reverse the company's fortunes.
• Dick Flavin wrote a version titled Teddy at the Bat, after Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams died in July 2002. Flavin performed the poem at Fenway Park during the night-long tribute to Williams done at the park later that month. The poem replaced Flynn and Blake with Bobby Doerr and Johnny Pesky, the batters who preceded Williams in the 1946 Red Sox lineup.
• In 2000, Michael J. Farrand adapted the rhyming scheme, tone, and theme of the poem—while reversing the outcome—to create his poem "The Man Who Gave All the Dreamers in Baseball Land Bigger Dreams to Dream" about Kirk Gibson's home run off Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. The poem appears at the Baseball Almanac.
• Norman Jackman wrote a reversed-outcome version in 1951 called "Bobby Thomson at the Bat," which went unknown for over 60 years until the San Francisco Giants published it in 2012.^[31] It's about Thomson'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 the Hall of Fame.
• The New York Times best-selling author and poet laureate of The Ringer, Shea Serrano, penned a loving tribute to NBA player Gordon Hayward in the vein of "Casey at the Bat" in 2017.^[32]
• Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster created "Shakespearean Baseball", featuring William Shakespeare-esque characters and dialogue in a skit based upon the poem. They performed the play on The Ed Sullivan Show and on Canadian TV numerous times between the 1950s and 1980s.
• Baseball writer and Villanova professor Mitchell Nathanson updated the poem for contemporary times in 2019, publishing "Casey @ the Bat" in The Washington Post.^[33]

Translations

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 title Casey au bâton, and two in Hebrew. One by the sports journalist Menachem Less titled "התור של קייסי לחבוט" [Hator Shel Casey Lachbot],^[34] and the other more recent and more true to the original cadence and style by Jason H. Elbaum called קֵיסִי בַּמַּחְבֵּט [Casey BaMachbayt].^[35]

Names

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".^[36]

Contemporary culture

Games

The poem is referenced in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game EarthBound, where a weapon is named the Casey Bat, which is the strongest weapon in the game, but will only hit 25% of the time.

Enter the Gungeon features a weapon called "Casey," taking the form of a baseball bat. The quote "Batting .50" is displayed when the weapon is picked up.

Television

A recurring character in the Pokémon anime, a girl who is a very enthusiastic fan of baseball, is named "Casey" in the English version in reference to the poem.^[37]

A baseball-themed episode of The Twilight Zone was named The Mighty Casey in reference to the poem's lead character, though the plot is unrelated.

In the show Friends, Ross clarifies how to spell "Casey" as in "at the bat" in the Season 2, episode 14 titled "The One with the Prom Video."^[38]

In the show Containment, Season 1, episode 6 takes its name, “He Stilled the Rising Tumult”, from the poem.

Theme parks

• Casey's Corner is a baseball-themed restaurant in Walt Disney World's Magic 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 at Disneyland Paris' Disneyland Park since its opening in 1992, under the name Casey's Corner.
• A game called Casey at the Bat is in the Games of the Boardwalk at the Disneyland Resort's Disney California Adventure.

Postage stamp

On July 11, 1996, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp depicting "Mighty Casey." The stamp was part of a set commemorating American folk heroes. Other stamps in the set depicted Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and Pecos Bill.^[39]

References

1. "Casey at the Bat". Baseball Almanac.
2. Armenti, Peter (June 4, 2013). "The First Publication of "Casey at the Bat"". From the Catbird Seat. Library of Congress.
3. Gardner, Martin (October 1967). "Casey At The Bat". American Heritage. 18 (6). Retrieved October 20, 2012.
4. O'Donnell, Edward T. "The Origins of the Mighty Casey". In The Past Lane. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
5. "Casey at the Bat". Joslin Hall. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
6. Gardner, Martin (October 1967). "Casey At The Bat". American Heritage. 18 (6). Retrieved June 3, 2017.
7. Canale, Larry (November 6, 2012). "Casey Might Have Struck Out, But Related Memorabilia Does Not". Sports Collectors Digest. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
8. Rosenberg, 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. ISBN 0-9725574-1-5.
9. "Ernest Lawrence Thayer and "Casey at the Bat"". Joslin Hall Rare Books News List. Retrieved June 2, 2009.
10. Moore, Jim; Vermilyea, Natalie (1994). Ernest Thayer's "Casey at the bat" : background and characters of baseball's most famous poem. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. p. 2. ISBN 9780899509976.
11. "Casey at the Bat". Current Literature. 21 (2): 129. February 1897.
12. Koppett, Leonard (August 4, 1979). "Casey at Bat? He Was Fraud!". The Sporting News. p. 16.
13. https://archive.org/details/furthur2013-07-14.AKGc1000s
14. "Casey At The Bat". Casey at the Bat – James Earl Jones. YouTube. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
15. 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
16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwsSVmYy2vI
17. "Casey at the Bat".
18. Osterberg, Gayle (June 3, 2013). "A Special Recording to Celebrate Casey's 125th". Library of Congress Blog.
19. Zezima, Katie (March 31, 2004). "Mudville Journal; In 'Casey' Rhubarb, 2 Cities Cry 'Foul!'". New York Times.
20. "Stockton Mudville Nine". Baseball Reference.com.
21. "Progressive Silent Film List: Casey at the Bat". Silent Era.
22. Grams, Martin (February 27, 2008). Radio drama : a comprehensive chronicle of American network programs, 1932-1962. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. ISBN 9780786438716. OCLC 188535974.
23. "How I Met Your Mother Episode Bedtime Stories Scripts". springfieldspringfield.co.uk. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
24. Casey at the Bat, poem by Ernest L. Thayer, a setting for concert band and narrator by Randol Alan Bass. Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., 2008
25. Gardner, Martin (1995). The Annotated Casey at the Bat: A Collection of Ballads About the Mighty Casey. Dover Publications. p. 38. ISBN 0-486-28598-7.
26. McDonald, Clarence. "CASEY - TWENTY YEARS LATER BY CLARENCE P. MCDONALD". p. [1].
27. "For A Guy Who Struck Out 100 Years Ago, Mighty Casey Is Still". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved February 28, 2017.
28. https://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_hrbek_at_the_bat.shtml
29. Keillor, Garrison. "Casey at the Bat (Road Game)". Baseball Almanac.
30. Pogue, David (October 1999). "The Desktop Critic: Steven Saves the Mac". Macworld.
31. MLB.com/blogs (February 2, 2012). "Bobby Thomson at the Bat". SF Giants Photos. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
32. https://theringer.com/gordon-hayward-utah-jazz-poem-nbshea-ea66d15584be
33. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/01/casey-bat-poem-baseball-modern-era/?wpisrc=nl_ideas&wpmm=1
34. הספורט הגדולה מכולן! Archived July 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
35. Elbaum, Jason H. "Casey at the Bat in Hebrew".
36. Stengel, Casey; Paxton, Harry T. (1962). Casey at the Bat: The Story of My Life in Baseball. New York: Random House. p. 11.
37. "Casey (anime)". Bulbapedia.
38. "Transcript of The One with the Prom Video". friends.tktv.net.
39. "Mighty Casey". US Stamp Gallery.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Casey at the Bat

• "Casey at the Bat" on MLB.com.
• Hear Hopper recite the poem.
• Library of Congress essay on its inclusion into the National Recording Registry.
• Casey at the Bat cylinder recording by Russell Hunting, from the Cylinder Audio Archive at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
• "Casey at the Bat" Web site with biographical details on Thayer, Hopper, Mike "King" Kelly and chronology of the poem's publication.
• "Casey at the Bat" as told in baseball cards
• Poems about Casey's later life, including another by Grantland Rice, and one by Garrison Keillor
• Casey at the Bat public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• 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