We LOVE taking you out to the ballgame!!!
The age-old song was written by Jack Norworth in 1908 while he was on a train ride to Manhattan, New York. His inspiration?
A sign that read "Baseball Today - Polo Grounds". Even though, Norworth had never been to a baseball game before it only took him a miraculous 30 minutes to jot down the lyrics.
The successful vaudeville entertainer and songwriter, Jack Norworth's focus for the song was a fictitious girl named Katie Casey and her desire to be taken to a ball game by her boyfriend.
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" got its start at various vaudeville shows, within a year the song topped the music charts and people young and old began to sing the catchy tune. In 1927, Norworth released a new version of the classic, replacing Katie Casey's name to Nelly Kelly.
This version is what is commonly used today. On the song's 50th anniversary, Jack Norworth was presented with a gold lifetime ballpark pass by Major League Baseball, Inc in recognition of his creation - "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" - and its continuous successes. Unfortunately, the following year Norworth died.
The ever-so-famous seventh inning stretch singing tradition was born in 1976. Hall of Fame Broadcaster Harry Caray was caught singing the popular tune along with nearby fans by then-owner Bill Veeck at Comiskey Park. Veeck thought the rendition by Caray was hilarious and the next day he secretly placed a microphone in Caray's broadcast booth allowing all the fans at the Chicago White Sox game to here.
From that day forward Caray's singing of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was in high-demand in Comiskey Park. Caray would eventually start his seventh inning singing at Wrigley Field where he would broadcast for 16 years. Today, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is one of the top three most performed songs in the United States of America being used over 1,500 times in movies and television shows, with countless performances by various celebrity icons including, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, Ozzy Osbourne, Mr.T, and Muhammad Ali.
1927 Version:
Nelly Kelly love baseball games, Knew the players, knew all their names, You could see her there ev'ry day, Shout "Hurray," when they'd play. Her boy friend by the name of Joe Said, "To Coney Isle, dear, let's go," Then Nelly started to fret and pout, And to him I heard her shout.
"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."
Nelly Kelly was sure some fan, She would root just like any man, Told the umpire he was wrong, All along, good and strong. When the score was just two to two, Nelly Kelly knew what to do, Just to cheer up the boys she knew, She made the gang sing this song.
"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."