Casey
The History of Casey at the Bat, Perhaps the Most Famous Poem of All Time
By C. Philip Francis
Part 1
(Written for print on 12-20-00)
This is our holiday gift to all readers and friends of Chatter from the Dugout, and in memory of Ron Przystas, the former editor of the Gladwin, Michigan Record - a great guy and baseball lover.
THE OUTLOOK WASN’T BRILLIANT FOR THE MUDVILE NINE THAT DAY: THE SCORE STOOD FOUR TO TWO, WITH BUT ONE INNING MORE TO PLAY.
Could there be anyone who is not familiar with the Mighty Casey from Mudville! This literary phenomenon has been read, talked about, reprinted, memorized, and is perhaps the most famous poem of all time. This is how it all came about…
A SICKLY SILENCE FELL UPON THE PATRONS OF THE GAME. A STRAGGLED FEW GOT UP TO GO IN DEEP DESPAIR.
Casey at the Bat is a one-verse effort. The author never wrote another poem or story of merit, and wasn’t even trying to write one – just some comic doggerel, something to entertain and amuse those that liked and knew baseball. Instead the author produced a legend as permanent as Johnny Appleseed, Pecos Bill, or Paul Bunyan.
THEY THOUGHT IF ONLY CASEY COULD BUT GET A WHACK AT THAT-
WE’D PUT UP EVEN MONEY NOW WITH CASEY AT THE BAT.”
Ernest Lawrence Thayer was born on August 14, 1863 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. His father owned and operated several woolen mills, and expected the son to someday take over the business. Thayer attended Harvard University where he compiled a brilliant record in philosophy, and also where he met a fellow student named William Randolph Hearst. After William was expelled from the school due to too many student pranks, his father gave him a newspaper to manage and operate, the recently purchased but failing San Francisco Examiner.
SO UPON THAT STRICKEN MULTITUDE GRIM MELANCHOLY SAT,
FOR THERE SEEMED BUT LITTLE CHANCE OF CASEY GETTING TO THE BAT. THEN FROM 5000 THROATS AND MORE THERE ROSE A LUSTY YELL.
Ernest was traveling through Europe when he was contacted by his old friend William. Would his former classmate would be interested in writing a humor column for the Examiner’s Sunday supplement? Of course was the answer, and so Ernest’s first contribution was printed in October of 1887 - unsigned. He followed with a series of ballads that ran every other week under the by-line of “Phin”, his Harvard nickname. After ill health forced Thayer to return to his home in Worchester he sent his last piece of work to the paper. It was “Casey at the Bat” for which he received five dollars.
THERE WAS EASE IN CASEY’S MANNER AS HE STEPPED INTO HIS PLACE;
THERE WAS PRIDE IN CASEY’S BEARING AND A SMILE LIT CASEY’S FACE.
On Sunday, June 3, 1888 Thayer’s piece appeared on page 4, column 4, tucked between editorials on the left, and a weekly column by Ambrose Bierce on the right. Little attention was paid to “Casey” and it was soon forgotten.
AND WHEN, RESPONDING TO THE CHEERS, HE LIGHTLY DOFFED HIS HAT,
NO STRANGER IN THE CROWD COULD DOUBT ‘TWAS CASEY AT THE BAT.
TEN THOUSAND EYES WERE ON HIM AS HE RUBBED HIS HANDS WITH DIRT.
A year later a young comedian and singer named William De Wolf Hopper was appearing in the New York City theater at Broadway and 30th. One night the New York Giants and Chicago White Stockings were in town for an exhibition game, and had been invited to Hopper’s show as guests. What could the vaudeville star do to best entertain the two ballclubs? A friend of Hopper was also at the show said, “I have just the thing” as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a clipping from the San Francisco Examiner. It was a Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat.” Hopper memorized it, and delivered the poem in the middle of the second act with the Giant players on one side and the Sox on the other. It was a smash hit.
DEFIANCE FLASHED IN CASEY’S EYE, A SNEER CURLED CASEY’S LIP.
AND NOW THE LEATHER-COVERED SPHERE CAME HURLING THROUGH THE AIR.
After the fine response from the audience, Hopper made Casey part of his repertoire. He went on to recite Casey more than 10,000 times with one rendition taking exactly five minutes and forty seconds. Irony is no stranger to this saga. Hopper is remembered for three reasons: He had six wives, the fifth being Hedda Hopper, the famous Hollywood gossip columnist; the only child by Hedda and De Wolf was William Hopper who portrayed Paul Drake on the Perry Mason television series; and it was De Wolf Hopper who made “Casey at the Bat” a baseball legend.
AND CASEY STOOD A-WATCHING IT IN HAUGHTY GRANDEUR THERE.
CLOSE BY THE STURDY BATSMAN THE BALL UNHEEDED SPED –
“THAT AIN’T MY STYLE,” SAID CASEY. “STRIKE ONE!” THE UMPIE SAID.
FROM THE BENCHES, BLACK WITH PEOPLE, THERE WENT UP A MUFFLED ROAR,
“KILL HIM! KILL THE UMPIRE!” SHOUTED SOME ONE ON THE STAND;
AND IT’S LIKELY THEY’D HAVE KILLED HIM HAD NOT CASEY RAISED HIS HAND.
Casey
The History of Casey at the Bat, Perhaps the Most Famous Poem of all Time
By C. Philip Francis
Part 2
This is our holiday gift to all readers and friends of Chatter from the Dugout, and in memory of Ron Przystas, the former editor of the Gladwin, Michigan Record – a great guy and baseball lover.
WITH A SMILE OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY GREAT CASEY’S VISAGE SHONE;
HE STILLED THE RISING TUMULT; HE BADE THE GAME GO ON;
HE SIGNALED TO THE PITCHER, AND ONCE MORE THE DUN SPHERE FLEW;
BUT CASEY STILL IGORED IT, AND THE UMPIRE SAID, “STRIKE TWO!”
“…to dig it out of a pile of junk and know it for a thing of beauty, only the connoisseur can do that.” Burton Stevenson, a critic and poety anthologist, was referring to Archibald Clavering Gunter who was the friend of De Wolf Hopper that just happened to have a copy of Casey at the Bat in his pocket one night. When two big league ball teams attended a vaudeville show to see a since forgotten play named Prince Methusalem in New York City over a century ago as Hopper’s guests, he wanted to give the players something extraordinary. It was Gunter and Casey who came to the rescue.
“FRAUD!” CRIED THE MADDENED THOUSANDS, AND ECHO ANSWERED “FRAUD!”.
THEY SAW HIS FACE GROW STERN AND COLD, AND THEY SAW HIS MUSCLES STRAIN,
AND THEY KNEW THAT CASEY WOULDN’T LET THAT BALL GO BY AGAIN.
Many believed that in Ernest Thayer’s famous poem, Mudville was actually Boston with the name of Casey substituted for Mike “King” Kelly, a famous Chicago baseball star of the era. Other players claimed that they were the inspirations for the baseball ballad, but Thayer denied having any particular person in mind for Casey. The author even wrote a letter to a Syracuse (NY) newspaper stating, “The poem has no basis in fact.”
THE SNEER HAS FLED FROM CASEY’S LIP, HIS TEETH ARE CLENCHED IN HATE;
HE POUNDS WITH CRUEL VIOLENCE HIS BAT UPON THE PLATE.
AND NOW THE PITCHERE HOLDS THE BALL, AND NOW HE LETS IT GO.
AND NOW THE AIR IS SHATTERED BY THE FORCE OF CASEY’S BLOW.
Although most people were familiar with the tale of Casey’s calamity, many did not know the name of the writer, and some declared that they had written the verse. When it appeared in a volume of poetry in 1902, the name of the author was not Ernest Thayer.
Thayer remained in Worcester, Massachusetts studying philosophy, reading classical literature, and managing the family woolen mills. He would not accept payments for Casey’s reprinting, and once said, “All I ask is never to be reminded of it again.” Thayer left the mills, traveled abroad, and finally retired to Santa Barbara, California. At the age of fifty, he married a Mrs. Rosalind Hammett from St. Louis who had no children.
The composer of the immortal baseball verse had now distanced himself from his creation, but when he attended a 1935 Harvard class reunion there was a large banner proclaiming “AN ’85 MAN WROTE CASEY.” It was said that Thayer seemed to be quite touched. The father of Casey at the Bat died in Santa Barbara in 1940 at the age of 77.
OH, SOMEWHERE IN THIS FAVORED LAND THE SUN IS SHINING BRIGHT;
THE BAND IS PLAYING SOMEWHERE, AND SOMEWHERE HEARTS ARE LIGHT,
AND SOMEWHERE MEN ARE LAUGHING, AND LITTLE CHILDREN SHOUT;
BUT THERE IS NO JOY IN MUDVILLE – GREAT CASEY HAS STRUCK OUT.
Baseball fans attend baseball games to see players perform. If “Casey” hits a home run, that is expected, and we jump and clap. But if our Casey strikes out are we not somewhat privately pleased now that he is not better than we are. And wherever baseball is played, the air will always be shattered again and again by the force of the many Casey’s. It is a tragedy of destiny, but that is baseball.
Epilogue: Although Casey struck out, others did not. William R. Hearst, the college friend who once hired Thayer to write humorous doggerel, went on to found a chain of publications, was the unsuccessful candidate for the 1904 Democratic nomination for President of the United States, became one of the most wealthy men in the country, and built a lavish home in San Simeon, California that is today visited by many. He died in 1951 at the age of 88.
De Wolf Hopper, a New York vaudeville performer and matinee idol, wanted a baseball number for a special production. Because a friend had a copy of the unknown Casey at the Bat in his pocket, Hopper became famous after his many stage renditions of the Mudville slugger. Hopper died in 1935 at 77.
Thayer’s baseball ballad has been performed on the stage, on radio, on the screen, and also as an opera in Cooperstown, NY in 1991. There are many versions of the original Casey at the Bat that was subtitled “A Ballad of the Republic”: “Casey’s Revenge” by sportswriter Grantland Rice, “Mudville’s Fate” also by Rice, “The Man Who Fanned Casey”, “Mrs. Casey at the Bat”, “Casey – Twenty Years Later”, and even a hip “’Cool’ Casey at the Bat” by the editors of Mad Magazine.