{"id":12051,"date":"2025-03-22T15:54:15","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T15:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2025\/03\/22\/ernest-lawrence-thayer-and-casey-at-the-bat\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T10:58:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:58:56","slug":"ernest-lawrence-thayer-and-casey-at-the-bat","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2025\/03\/22\/ernest-lawrence-thayer-and-casey-at-the-bat\/","title":{"rendered":"Ernest Lawrence Thayer and \u2018Casey at the Bat\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Iconic baseball poem was written in Worcester<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ernest Lawrence Thayer<\/a> was born on August 14, 1863, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, but he spent his formative years in Worcester, where his family lived on Chatham Street. He graduated with a bachelor\u2019s in philosophy from Harvard University in 1885, where he was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club and edited the Harvard Lampoon<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Harvard, Thayer met William Randolph Hearst, who would later run the San Francisco Examiner<\/em> and hire Thayer to write a humorous column for the newspaper. On June 3, 1883, Thayer published \u201cCasey at the Bat\u201d under the pen name Phin. The poem gained popularity after the performer William DeWolf Hopper incorporated a recitation of it into his theatrical and radio performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mock-heroic poem tells the story of a baseball team from the fictional town of Mudville who are losing by two runs in the last inning. Both the team and its fans, a crowd of 5,000, believe that they can win if Casey, Mudville\u2019s star player, steps up to the plate. (Spoiler alert: He gets to bat, but he strikes out.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Read \u201cCasey at the bat\u201d<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A month after the poem was published, it was reprinted as \u201cKelly at the Bat\u201d in the New York Sporting Times<\/em>. Aside from omitting the first five verses, the only changes from the original are substitutions of Kelly for Casey \u2014 and Boston for Mudville. King Kelly, then of the Boston Beaneaters, was one of baseball\u2019s biggest stars at the time. (\u201cThere is no joy in Boston; mighty Kelly has struck out.\u201d The Boston\u2013New York baseball rivalry certainly goes back a long way.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Illustration
Illustration by Dan Sayre Groesbeck for the first book version of “Casey at the Bat” published by A.C. McClurg & Co. in 1912.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While it is considered to be baseball\u2019s first poem, it is not Worcester\u2019s only baseball \u201cfirst.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n