Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Lyrics
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.
History and Meaning
The two men who wrote America's baseball anthem in 1908 had never been to a baseball game. Jack Norworth scribbled "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" after spotting a subway billboard, Albert Von Tilzer set it to music, and it became the song every crowd now sings during the seventh-inning stretch.
Origins
The song was written in 1908 by lyricist Jack Norworth and composer Albert Von Tilzer. Remarkably, neither man had ever attended a professional baseball game before writing it. Norworth was inspired while riding a New York subway train, where he spotted a billboard advertising "Baseball Today at the Polo Grounds." He quickly jotted down the lyrics on a scrap of paper, which Von Tilzer then set to music. The song was first performed in vaudeville acts and became an immediate commercial success, selling millions of copies of sheet music.
Meaning & Interpretation
The famous chorus is actually only a small part of a larger song about a fictional character named Katie Casey. In the original verses, Katie is a passionate baseball fan who refuses to go to a theater show with her boyfriend, insisting instead that he take her to the ballpark.
The song rode the rising popularity of baseball as the American national pastime in the early 1900s. The mention of "Cracker Jack" in the lyrics permanently cemented the peanut and molasses-coated popcorn snack as a staple of American stadium culture. The tradition of singing the chorus during the middle of the seventh inning was popularized in the 1970s by sportscaster Harry Caray, who encouraged fans to sing along with him.
Who wrote Take Me Out to the Ball Game?
The song's lyrics were written by Jack Norworth, and the music was composed by Albert Von Tilzer. They collaborated to create the song in New York in 1908.
What is the history behind Take Me Out to the Ball Game?
The song was written in 1908 after Jack Norworth saw an advertisement for a baseball game at the Polo Grounds. It became a massive hit in vaudeville and is now a central tradition of baseball games across North America.
Music Video
Lyrics from nurseryrhymes.info