Diamond Ditty turns 100

'Take Me Out': Song is sung at weddings and funerals

By Don Colburn
The Oregonian

Back before steroids and artificial turf, before pitch counts and closers and the designated hitter, back when the Dodgers hailed from Brooklyn and the A's from Philadelphia, back before Jackie Robinson and even before The Babe, a man on a train wrote a baseball song.

His name was Jack Norworth, and he was a vaudeville entertainer closing in on 30. He was riding the Ninth Avenue elevated line in New York, so the legend goes, when he glanced out the window and saw a sign: "Baseball Today --Polo Grounds."

Which moved him to scribble some words for a song.

A ditty, really. More doggerel than lyrical. The plot: A baseball-mad gal named Katie urges her beau not to take her to a show --but to a ballgame.

That's about it. But set to music by Norworth's friend, Albert Von Tilzer, the words made a song that would become an anthem --maybe the anthem --to the national pastime.

The original two verses bombed, but the chorus, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," became a hit, then a classic, then a staple of the seventh-inning stretch of nearly every Major League Baseball game played in America.

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game," according to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, is the second-most widely sung song in the United States --next to "The Star-Spangled Banner." Unless you count "Happy Birthday."

"This song is done today at weddings and funerals, which is bizarre for a song," Tim Wiles, research director at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and co-author of the book "Baseball's Greatest Hit: The Story of Take Me Out to the Ball Game," says on the hall's Web site.

"Take Me Out" turned 100 this season. There's a postage stamp coming out and tributes at both the New York Public Library and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A contest-winning fan will get to sing it at the All-Star Game July 15 at Yankee Stadium.

Things were different in 1908. Music was recorded on cylinders and sold in paper sheets and listened to in storefront theaters called nickelodeons. Boston's American League team had a new name: the Red Sox. Tigers center fielder Ty Cobb led the league in average, hits, doubles, triples and RBIs. A new rule spelled out a run-scoring out called the sacrifice fly. The Cubs --it was that long ago --were on their way to victory in the World Series.

It took a while for "Take Me Out" to become baseball's biggest hit. Its first rendition at a Major League game came in 1934 in St. Louis, when a jug band led by Cardinals third baseman Pepper Martin played it before a World Series game. Its use during the seventh-inning stretch dates at least to 1946.

In 1976, the song received new life when White Sox owner Bill Veeck ("as in wreck") and broadcaster Harry Caray --later a Cubs legend --teamed up to popularize its singing during the seventh-inning stretch. Since then, it has been sung at most big-league games. For a time, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, many teams replaced it with "God Bless America."

But these days, it has returned as the seventh-inning anthem in most ballparks, with fans substituting their favorite team's name for the words "home team" (as in "Root, root, root for the BEA-vers . . .").

To see a Q&A about the song, click below to continue reading.INSIDE A 100-YEAR-OLD CLASSIC

Q: Who was the first to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"?

A: Probably Jack Norworth's wife, Nora Bayes.

Q: Why else should I care about those two?

A: They also wrote and sang "Shine On, Harvest Moon."

Q: Is "Take Me Out" the whole song?

A: No. The part everybody knows is the chorus, which follows each of two verses in the original.

Q: Why don't people sing the verses, too?

A: They're stupid and sexist and they don't even scan.

Q: Why didn't Norworth just rewrite them?

A: He did. There's a 1927 version, too.

Q: Is the rewrite a big improvement?

A: No, it might be worse. He did substitute "Nelly Kelly" for "Katie Casey" and "her boyfriend by the name of Joe" for "her young beau."

Q: Musically speaking, what does "Take Me Out" have going for it?

A: It's a catchy chorus you can't get out of your head.

Q: What's the down side?

A: Ditto.

Q: What wording change did Carly Simon make in her version, sung for Ken Burns' 1994 PBS documentary on baseball?

A: She changed "Ev'ry sou Katie blew" to "Every cent Katie spent."

Q: Where else has "Take Me Out" shown up?

A: It has been featured in more than 1,200 movies and TV shows. It was sung by Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in the 1949 film "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." There's a jazz version featuring pianist Andre Previn, an alternative rock version recorded by the Goo Goo Dolls, a punk single by the Japanese band Nicotine, and an illustrated children's book with the same title, by Jim Burke.

Q: Did Jack Norworth write any more baseball songs?

A: In 1909, he wrote "Let's Get the Umpire's Goat."

Q: Jack must have been quite a baseball fan.

A: Not really. He saw his first Major League game 32 years later.

Q: That's unbelievable!

A: Maybe so. A Sporting News article in 1953, when Jack was in his 70s, suggests that he changed his tune and may have seen a ballgame much earlier.

Q: What's the weirdest use of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"?

A: Behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner (a Red Sox fan) taught pigeons to play the tune on a seven-key piano around 1950.

Q: How old is Cracker Jack?

A: Cracker Jack was introduced in 1893 at the Chicago World's Fair.

Q: What is Cracker Jack?

A: It's a mix of caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts. The recipe is based on what its current maker, Frito-Lay, calls a secret formula for keeping the popcorn morsels from sticking together.

Q: What's CJ's nutritional profile?

A: Each half-cup serving contains 120 calories, 15 grams sugar and 2 grams fat. No trans fat. A fat-free version came out in 1995.

Q: Shouldn't it be Cracker Jacks (plural)?

A: "Cracker Jack is always singular," a Frito-Lay spokeswoman says. "As in the song."

Don Colburn: 503-294-5124; doncolburn@news.oregonian.com