Have you heard the beginning of Take Me Out to the Ballgame?

You know the chorus, which starts with the words in the title,

but I'm talking about the part they don't play during the seventh inning stretch,

even though there's just enough time between innings.

Let's listen to the earliest recorded version of the song,

from the year it was written, 1908.

Katie, Casey was baseball mad, Had the fever and had it bad

Just to root for the home

Down through every zoo

Katie blue

On the Saturday

Her young beau

Called to see if she'd like to go

To see a show

But Miss Kate said no I'll tell you what you can do.

Take me out to the ball game.

That's a man named Edward Meeker on the mic, which was more of a horn in those days.

When Meeker and the millions of others who still sing along to that song every year reach the chorus,

they're not just expressing their own desire to be at the ballpark.

They're also quoting a character, Katie Casey.

In a 1927 rewrite, Katie Casey was rechristened Nelly Kelly.

Nellie, like Katie, loved baseball games and knew the players knew all their names.

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