![]() Other ritual songs just happened to catch on, such as “ Thank God I’m a Country Boy” in Baltimore and “ Sweet Caroline” in the eighth inning in Boston. Toronto fans actually stretch to “OK Blue Jays.” Some teams add a regional tune, such as Lou Monte’s “Lazy Mary” for the New York Mets, “Louie Louie” in Seattle and “La Gozadera” in Miami. This year, fans will belt out “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch in every major league park except two: New York Yankees fans will sing “God Bless America,” and Astros fans will still do (clap clap clap clap) “Deep in the Heart of Texas.” This way everyone will sing.”Įveryone sang, and from then on, Caray led White Sox fans and then Chicago Cubs fans with great gusto until his death in 1998. Veeck’s answer? “If you could sing, nobody would sing with you. “And then he asked Bill Veeck … ‘What did you do? I can’t sing.’ ” “ said it surprised him to hear his voice all over the ballpark,” Caray’s wife, Dutchie, later told the Chicago Tribune. However, it didn’t become a belt-it-out-at-the-top-of-your-lungs tradition until 1976, when Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck put a live mic in front of jovial broadcaster Harry Caray - who normally warbled only to himself and his boothmates - as organist Nancy Faust played the song. ![]() It was also an obvious choice to be played at ballparks, especially during the seventh-inning stretch. “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” by Jack Norworth and Albert von Tilzer, was an instant commercial hit about a woman who wanted her boyfriend to take her to a baseball game. What did catch on was a 1908 earworm by two songwriters who had never attended a game. Harry Caray led fans in singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at Wrigley Field. “ Base Ball!” praised “the health-giving zest” of “the manliest game” while mocking the sports of cricket and curling. The first documented baseball tune was an 1858 polka with no lyrics, and the first song came along in 1870. Singalongs ‘Let me hear you good and loud!’īallpark music is nearly as old as ballparks, but mass singalongs took a while to evolve. They come and go.īut every once in a while, an idea is so innovative (an “exploding” scoreboard) or cathartic (chucking back opponents’ home run balls) or downright silly (racing meat products) that it becomes a bona fide ballpark tradition. Since professional baseball’s earliest years, a day at the park has included all sorts of entertaining gimmicks and rituals.
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