Casey at the Bat: Happy Birthday Mighty Casey

The Outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville Nine that day. The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play. And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same, A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game…

Casey at the Bat: Happy Birthday Mighty Casey

The lines above “lead off” what has become one of the most well-known poems ever written: Ernest Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888,” or simply “Casey at the Bat.”

Since baseball season is in full swing and today is the 123rd anniversary of the publishing of this famous poem in the San Francisco Examiner, we thought this would be a great time to examine the history of this poem and its relationship to the Pencils.com headquarters in Stockton, CA.

Every great story has a beginning, as does every great poem. Born Ernest Lawrence Thayer on August 14, 1863, the author who would come to publish the most famous of all baseball poems graduated from Harvard with a degree in Philosophy and worked with William Randolf Hearst as an editor for the Harvard Lampoon. Sometime before publishing the poem in 1888, Thayer came to California to work for Hearst at the San Francisco Examiner. It was through this newspaper that Thayer first published “Casey at the Bat” using the pen name “Phin,” a monicker he had used since his days with the Lampoon.

The poem, which did not gain much fame until it was performed countless times by stage performer De Wolf Hopper, chronicles the events that occur in the final inning of a baseball game between the “Mudville Nine” and an unnamed opposing team. After the first two outs of the inning are recorded, the Mudville fans lament that since “Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,” there was very “little chance of Casey getting to the bat.” After two miraculous hits, however, Casey does get his chance at the plate; a chance that he blows, as the poem leaves us after the “mighty Casey has struck out.” The poem’s ending catches the reader off guard; while reading through the poem there is no question that the heroic Casey will get the hit and save the game. Yet, after two called strikes, Casey does not clobber the ball like a hero, he strikes out swinging like any other player.

There is a bit of contention regarding what town the fictional setting of the poem is based on. Residents of Holliston, Massachusetts, which has a neighborhood called Mudville and is located close to Thayer’s hometown of Worcester, claim that their town serves as the inspiration for the poem’s setting. Residents of Stockton, California, which was known as Mudville in its early days, however, disagree. Thayer covered the Stockton Ports baseball team during his time with the Examiner, causing many to believe that the town whose baseball team is described in the poem is none other than Stockton. In fact, to prove just how dedicated they were to the notion that Stockton truly was the inspiration for “Casey at the Bat,” the Stockton Ports were renamed the Mudville Nine for their 2001 and 2002 seasons. Suffice it to say that both towns will have to agree to disagree, as there was never a definitive statement made regarding the inspiration for the poem.

Regardless of the inspiration for its setting, however, the poem stands as a significant, albeit simple poem that explores the game of baseball, its fans and its players. You see, poems do not have to be about profound ideas and complex subjects to be great, they simply must be honest and inspired. In fact, we’d love to read an original poem from you. So much so that we’re willing to reward you for it as part of this month’s Blackwing Writing Contest. Who knows, maybe in another 123 years we will be celebrating your “Casey at the Bat.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS MONTH’S BLACKWING WRITING CONTEST
“Casey” Image courtesy of C.F. Payne