Take Me Out to…
Katie Casey was baseball mad. Had the fever and had it bad.
Bygone baseball by C. Philip Francis
In 1908 a subway train roared through New York’s Upper Manhattan not far from the Polo Grounds, baseball home of the National League Giants. One of the passengers was 30-year-old vaudeville song-and-dance man named Jack Norworth who was deep into thought. He was composing a melody that he hoped could easily be sung by both audience and himself, but his musical mind was bare.
Norworth suddenly looked to see an ad urging people to “come to the Polo Grounds to enjoy a ballgame.” The suddenly inspired songwriter began to scribble out a story plot in which Kitty Casey, later changed to Nelly Kelly, tells her boyfriend that she wants him to take her to a baseball game rather than enjoy the amusement rides at Coney Island. Within 30 minutes the performer has finished what would become one of the most popular songs in American. Jack Norworth had just written the classic “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” that would cash in on the game of baseball that was becoming so popular in this country.
The five-time wedded Norworth was then performing on stage with wife number two, Nora Bayes, who had a highly successful career in vaudeville and musical comedy. Nora was born in 1880 as Leonora Goldberg, and has been described as, “Inimitable foolery and clean fun that became one of the greatest favorites of the American stage.” The talented Nora was the first person to ever sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” in public, and Jack and Nora co-authored the lyrics for the long-time favorite “Shine On, Harvest Moon.”
Norworth often collaborated with a friend and fellow composer, Albert von Tilzer. Albert was born as Albert Gumm in Indianapolis in 1878, and it was Von Tilzer who put Jack’s new baseball melody to music. Von Tilzer learned to play the piano by ear, and worked in his father’s shoe store before going to Chicago to join a vaudeville troupe. He published his first song in 1900, and formed his own music company in 1903. Albert wrote the music for many songs including “Put Your Arms Around Me Honey” and “Ill Be With You in Apple Blossom Time.”
Prior to the publishing of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in 1908 neither Norworth or von Tilzer had ever seen a baseball game although there were three major league teams in New York – the Giants, the New York Highlanders (Yankees), and the Brooklyn Trolly Dodgers. In June 1940 Jack and Albert finally saw their first baseball game when the Brooklyn Dodgers gave them a long deserved recognition and appreciation in Ebbetts Field. It was von Tilzer’s only game in his lifetime, but his partner became an avid baseball. In 1958, the fiftieth anniversary of his beloved baseball classic, Jack Norworth was presented a gold lifetime ballpark pass by Major League Baseball.
Norworth and Miss Bayes continued to sing, act, and dance on the stage until vaudeville disappeared. After Nora died in 1928 Jack continued to perform including appearances on the Ed Sullivan television show. The author of baseball’s unoffical anthem was often asked how he could write a piece like that without ever seeing a game. The answer was always, “By using my imagination.” Jack wrote over 2,500 songs, but none more acclaimed than “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”, and once joked that only seven out of his many numbers were good. He died in 1959 at the age of 80 while von Tilzer had passed on three years earlier at the age of 78.
The late play-by-play baseball broadcaster Harry Carey is credited for first singing “Take Me Out…” as a seventh-inning singalong in 1971. The “holy cow” man with the black horned glasses once remarked, “I would always sing it because I think it’s the only song I knew the words to.”
Norworth wrote four verses although it is the melody or refrain that is sung by baseball fans:
Katie Casey was base ball mad.
Had the fever and had it bad.
Just to root for the home town crew
Ev’ry sou Katie blew
On a Saturday, he 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.”
“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.”
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:
Refrain:
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 start to fret and pout,
And to him I heard her shout.
Refrain:
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.
Refrain
It has been claimed that Norworth’s famous baseball tune along with “Happy Birthday” and the National Anthem are the three most popular songs in American music. Oh by the way, are cracker jacks still sold at ball games?