Since the beginning of National Poetry Month coincides with opening day this year as well as April Fool’s, a poem by the little-known Ernest Lawrence Thayer seems appropriate. You probably haven’t heard of this writer, but you have most likely heard the poem.
It's been recreated in a famous Disney cartoon, recited by James Earl Jones, and even performed by Penn & Teller (Teller escapes from being hung upside-down in a straight jacket before Penn can finish the poem).
Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888, is one of the few poems to remain popular in American mainstream culture throughout the modern era.
It's been recreated in a famous Disney cartoon, recited by James Earl Jones, and even performed by Penn & Teller (Teller escapes from being hung upside-down in a straight jacket before Penn can finish the poem).
Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888, is one of the few poems to remain popular in American mainstream culture throughout the modern era.
De Wolf Hopper, a popular comedian of the time, gave the first public performance of the work in August 1888, a few months after its publication. From there the poem gained immediate and lasting popularity, becoming eventually, as said by Baseball Almanac, “the single most famous baseball poem ever written.”
One of the major themes of this poem, and one it shares with the sport of baseball, is the community of loss. The poem is told through an omniscient third-person narrator and presents only a few characters: the umpire, the pitcher, the few players preceding Casey in the line-up, Casey himself, and the crowd.
Throughout the poem, we are privy to the inner thoughts of the mob in the stands while the narrator gives a dramatic play-by-play, uniting the reader with the fans. This culminates in Casey’s eventual strikeout, in which we all feel the excitement and expectation of the crowd, whiffed out of existence by Casey’s failure to connect, his fall from baseball demi-god to fallible human.
Couple notes: Mudville may or may not be based on an actual town. There are arguments that it may be Stockton, California, or Holliston, Massachusetts, though I feel it is a bit like the Anywheres-ville nature of the town of Springfield in The Simpsons. Also, Casey may not be based off any actual player, but if he were, it would most likely be Hall-of-Famer Mike “King” Kelly.
Despite the addition of some lines, I’m going to present this poem in its cartoon version. That’s how I first encountered it, and that’s likely how I’ll always remember it. If you don’t have ten minutes to watch a video, you can read the poem and find out more from the Baseball Almanac, and I highly recommend listening to Darth Vader recite it, too.
Throughout the poem, we are privy to the inner thoughts of the mob in the stands while the narrator gives a dramatic play-by-play, uniting the reader with the fans. This culminates in Casey’s eventual strikeout, in which we all feel the excitement and expectation of the crowd, whiffed out of existence by Casey’s failure to connect, his fall from baseball demi-god to fallible human.
Couple notes: Mudville may or may not be based on an actual town. There are arguments that it may be Stockton, California, or Holliston, Massachusetts, though I feel it is a bit like the Anywheres-ville nature of the town of Springfield in The Simpsons. Also, Casey may not be based off any actual player, but if he were, it would most likely be Hall-of-Famer Mike “King” Kelly.
Despite the addition of some lines, I’m going to present this poem in its cartoon version. That’s how I first encountered it, and that’s likely how I’ll always remember it. If you don’t have ten minutes to watch a video, you can read the poem and find out more from the Baseball Almanac, and I highly recommend listening to Darth Vader recite it, too.
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