The Baseball Guru OMI - Put me in Coach Part III by Herb Rogoff

MAY 2014: THE 133rd ARTICLE FOR BASEBALL GURU

ONEMOREINNING

….PUT ME IN COACH, I'M READY TO PLAY TODAY: PART THREE…

BASEBALL SONGS INCLUDING YOU KNOW WHAT

FINALLY WE GET TO YOU KNOW WHAT

There's no contest. The best well known & most popular baseball song is the iconic, "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" …..nothing else comes close. In recent years "Centerfield" by John Fogarty has been knocking on the door but it's a very, very faint knock. It seems that nothing will ever supplant "give me some peanuts and cracker jack" off it's very high pedestal!

Here is the full original 1908 version:

KATIE CASEY WAS BASEBALL MAD.

HAD THE FEVER AND HAD IT BAD,

JUST TO ROOT FOR THE HOME TOWN CREW,

EVERY SOU 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."

CHORUS:

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 JUST WHAT TO DO,

JUST TO CHEER UP THE BOYS SHE KNEW,

SHE MADE THE GANG SING THIS SONG.

CHORUS:

"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."

In 1928 a new version came out with different words but the chorus has remained the same. The original song is the one we sing today.

The music was composed by Jack Norworth (he was inspired while riding a train & saw a poster that said, "Baseball today, Polo Grounds." The lyrics were written by his good friend Albert Von Tilzer. Neither one had seen a baseball game before creating the song. Tilzer saw one 32 years later and Norworth 20 years after.

Norworth's wife, the very popular Music Hall performer Nora Bayes was the first person to sing it. In 1934 it was finally performed at a high school ballpark and later that year in a Major League game.

Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra sang the first verse of the 1928 version in the MGM film, "Take Me Out To The Ball Game."

The Marx Brothers segued from the overture to Il Trovatore to the chorus of the song in their 1935 Film, "A Night at the Opera."

One of the wackier versions of the song occurred in 2001. It featured a commercial of the song utilizing 10 major

Leaguers singing it in their native language. They included ALEX RODRIGUEZ, KEN GRIFFEY JR, KAZUHIRO SASAKI, CHAN HO PARK, ERIC GAGNE, GRAEME LLLOYD, MARK McGWIRE, ANDREW JONES, JOHN FRANCO, and IVAN RODRIGUEZ.

Orchestral parts of the song were used in the background for the Joe E. Brown film, "Fireman Save My Child."

Several people have recorded the song…..here are some of them:

CARLY SIMON, EDWARD MEEKER:1908, HARVEY HINDEEMEYER:1908, DORIS DAY and FRANK SINATRA, BILLY MURRAY, MYSTAH MONROE, RICHARD HEFFNER, DR. JOHN, KING CURTIS, THE ANDREWS SISTERS and DAN DAILEY, DON STIERNBERG, FRANK SINATRA and GENE KELLY, STEVEN ROSENHAUSE, MANDY POTANKIN (IN YIDDISH),

Next month:

HA, HA, HA: HILARIOUS BASEBALL JOKES

AND SOME THAT ARE NOT SO HILARIOUS