WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Old Ballgame: Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

The origin of baseball’s national anthem.

Welcome to the old ballgame, where we talk about the past of America's favorite pastime. I'm Tate Christensen. Today we look at baseball's national anthem, the song Take Me Out to the Ballgame. The words to the famous tune were written in 1908 by 29-year-old Jack Norworth. While Norworth had never been to a ballgame himself, he was inspired by an advertisement on a New York City subway train. The sign read, Baseball Today, Polo Grounds. That's all it took for Norworth to write a short poem about a young girl named Katie Casey. who wanted to go to a ballgame with her bow, rather than going to the movies.

After writing the lyrics to the song, Norworth's friend Albert von Tilzer put the lyrics to a melody. Later that year, Edward Meeker produced a recording of the song with Edison Records. The song was first played at a ballgame in 1934, at a Los Angeles high school, and later that same year, in the fourth game of the World Series. Since then, it has become one of the most popular songs of the last 150 years. This has been the old ballgame on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Thank you.