skyking162

I’m not a big fan of God Bless America. It’s a lovely song and I wouldn’t mind hearing it a few times per year, but this habit of replacing Take Me Out to the Ballgame with pseudo-patriotic propoganda every seventh inning stretch has got to stop. Especially since I’ve just learned that what we normally sing as Take Me Out to the Ballgame is merely the chorus.

That’s right, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, written way back in 1908, contains two verses that most of us have never heard, each followed by the commonly-heard chorus. It’s about a woman who’d rather spend her time at a ball game than anywhere else.

Verse One:
Katie Casey was baseball mad,
Had the fever and had it bad.
Just to root for the home town crew,
Ev’ry sou1
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:”

Verse Two:
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:

Women who beg men to take them to baseball games? I’d spend a few sou to support that movement. God bless America!

Hat Tips…

… to Brian and Doug for filling me in on this very important knowledge.
… to wikipedia for providing the lyrics. Check out the entry for a second version of the song (remix?) and more interesting trivia.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 22nd, 2006 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.