Casey At The Bat

            “Casey At The Bat” was first published by Ernest Lawrence Thayer in 1888 in the San Francisco Examiner. Thayer didn’t expect his now legendary poem to be such a hit. He wrote it just as he would his usual humor column (Johnson). Little did Thayer know that not only would his poem become so popular, but he also didn’t know that this poem would become a symbol for not only baseball, but how important idols and disappointment is in everyday life.

            “Casey At The Bat” is actually a fairly simplistic poem, with few underlying meanings. It starts off with the home team, the Mudville nine, down by two runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth with two batters to go before everyone’s hero, Mighty Casey, gets a chance to bat. The two men in front of Casey aren’t well liked by the fans and most of the fans don’t think that they will be able to get on base to give Casey the chance to win the game. To everyone’s surprise they both do. Now, Mighty Casey strides to the plate. He lets the first pitch go by for a strike. All the fans yell at the umpire telling him that he should die, then Casey waves his hand and all the fans quiet down. Casey then lets the second pitch go by for strike two, again the fans erupt in anger, and again Casey waves his hand to silence the crowd. This time Casey digs in hard, ready for the pitch. Casey swings at the next pitch and the crowd lets out a big gasp as Casey has struck out. There the poem ends with everyone’s hearts broken.

To start with the obvious, this poem explains how baseball is important to many peoples lives. This is very noticeable in the fifth stanza.

Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell;

It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;

It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat;

For Casey, Mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.

Every single person in the stadium couldn’t believe that their one true hero had finally gotten a chance to bat with the game on the line. Everyone’s hopes were high, they all believed that the game would be over in Mudville’s favor. Casey is just an example of the many heroes or idols that baseball has created over the years.

At this time in history baseball was still in its infancy. However, it was still the country’s pastime. Most people could relate to this story as they had witnessed something like it in their own towns or on their own teams. All the fans in Mudville that day wanted Casey at the plate because he was the one man on the team whom they all believed in. He also had a calm demeanor. “There was ease in Casey’s manner as he stepped into his place; / There was pride in Casey’s bearing and a smile on Casey’s Face” (Thayer). This ease and calmness in Casey made everyone relax a little. He was their idol, the man they needed to be at the plate, the man who made the team. Baseball has been riddled with men like this throughout its entire history. Casey was also the fan’s symbol of hope.

Casey as a symbol of hope does not stop at the baseball diamond. Casey also symbolizes the basic need for hope in everyday life. Without hope in one’s life they just go on and on not truly living. Everyone has an idol or a hero they look up to. Everyone hopes that that idol can keep them happy and continue to be a positive role model for them. That’s what Casey symbolizes. He also symbolizes disappointment. When Casey struck out at the end of the poem the whole stadium is filled with disappointment. “To realists, there is no question that Casey's strikeout is just the right way for this piece to end” (Kelly). Life is filled with disappointment. There is no way to get through life without the slightest bit of disappointment. Thayer shows that in this poem, he clearly believes that disappointment is necessary, but also that how one overcomes disappointment is what makes one want to continue on. After the playoffs most of the runners up say to themselves “wait until next year.” This shows that they are disappointed but they are going to use this disappointment to fuel their next season. There will be no excuse for being a runner up next year, they will try even harder in every game of the season to ensure that they are never runners up again. This is what Thayer is trying to say in his poem, there will always be disappointment that people need to overcome.

Disappointment in life is just an obstacle you have to get by. Thayer also included a couple obstacles for the fans of the Mudville nine. “But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake, / And The Former was a lulu and the latter was a cake;” (Thayer). Flynn and Blake were the only people that prevented Casey from walking up to the plate to take his swings. Most of the fans did not believe that they were capable of getting on base with the game on the line. To everyone’s surprise they both got on base. Not all obstacles in life are that easy to overcome. However, you must try to overcome these obstacles or you won’t be living at all. The obstacles may be small as they were in this poem or they may be large but you won’t know just how big they are until you try. All the fans in Mudville wanted was for Casey to be at the bat “We’d put up even money, now, with Casey at the bat” (Thayer).

Thayer showed a lot in this poem, he showed how important baseball once was to society, and how important having someone to look up to is and how important disappointment can be. He did it all while writing a captivating poem that continues to be the national anthem of baseball. This poem will always be there in the hearts of baseball fans across the globe, this poem has timeless importance to the life of baseball fans everywhere and also to non baseball fans alike. This poem will always be a reminder of how obstacles and disappointment are very common but necessary parts of life.

 

 

 

Works Cited

Johnson, Jeannie. "Critical Essay on "Casey At the Bat"" Literature Resorce Center. 26 Oct. 2006 .

Kelly, David. "Critical Essay on "Casey At the Bat"" Literature Resorce Center. 26 Oct. 2006 .

Thayer, Ernest L. "Casey At the Bat." Baseball-Almanac. 3 June 1888. 26 Oct. 2006 .