Stand up, stretch and sing Happy Birthday

by Ross on Jan 5, 2009 11:12 AM CST

Today is the 130th birthday of Jack Norworth.You've probably never heard of him.

The man never played a game, maybe never ever saw a game, but he has had as indelible in impact on the game of baseball today as almost anyone.

Still don't know who he is? Here's the explanation from Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac.

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

And it's the birthday of Jack Norworth, (books by this author) born in Philadelphia in 1879. Jack Norworth had never been to a baseball game, but one day in 1908, he was riding the subway and he saw a sign that said "Baseball Today — Polo Grounds," and he started thinking of baseball lyrics. He wrote them down on a piece of scratch paper, and then took them to the composer Albert Von Tilzer, another man who had never seen a baseball game, who went ahead and wrote the music. And the song became very famous: "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

Norworth also wrote "Shine on Harvest Moon". But TMOTTBG was his biggest hit, one of the top songs of 1908. Legend has it that it is the third most-often-played song in the country, after the National Anthem and Happy Birthday.

So here's to you, Mr. Norworth. Baseball wouldn't have been quite as fun without you.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or Al Yellon, managing editor (unless it's a FanPost posted by Al). FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.

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Pretty Cool

Baseball Fan, Bud Man

by brownbuddha on Jan 5, 2009 11:23 AM CST reply actions

ALLLLRIGHT...EVERYBODY...LEMME HEAR YA....

Yes, yes ... winter is indeed a pond upon which all of us must skate, braving frostbite and runny noses in the hopes that our cars will start and we shan't embarass ourselves slipping on a patch of black ice. Spring is more a quagmire of cold mud and slush, and fall is a pile of fallen leaves that may or may not hide a pile of doggy doo-doo. But summer, ah summer is an oasis of endless green that disappears all too quickly beneath our feet as we rush through its warm, glorious bliss.

by daver on Jan 5, 2009 11:36 AM CST reply actions

How cool. So this is the guy that wrote the song that

has been butchered by more often than the Star Spangled Banner. Take a bow Jack, where ever you may be.

"Hats for bats.....keep bats warm." - Pedro Cerrano
"Hey bartender, Jobu needs a refill !!!!!!!" - Eddie Harris

by willie mays hayes' gloves on Jan 5, 2009 12:13 PM CST reply actions

Oh, now, let's not get carried away.

TATSNBAA (the Anthem that should not be an anthem) gets slaughtered before all kinds of sporting events. TMOTTBG only gets butchered at baseball games, and the occasional hockey game.

Bleed Cubbie Blue: Like Drāno for your internet tubes.

by znohitter on Jan 5, 2009 2:17 PM CST up reply actions

Yabbut, the Anthem is usually sung by someone who has

a clue of how to carry a tune. Sure there have been a lot of clunkers(Carl Lewis, Rosanne Barr), but the list of people who have butchered TMOTTBG is reaching monumental status. Most of the people that sing the song wouldn’t be caught dead in front of a microphone under any other circumstances. The Anthem has quantity, but it is quickly being trumped by the quality of those trying to sing TMOTTBG.

"Hats for bats.....keep bats warm." - Pedro Cerrano
"Hey bartender, Jobu needs a refill !!!!!!!" - Eddie Harris

by willie mays hayes' gloves on Jan 5, 2009 2:24 PM CST up reply actions

You make a good point. You'd never ask Ron Santo to sing the anthem.

On the other hand, TMOTTBG is a pretty easy song to sing. The Anthem isn’t. The tune was originally a drinking song. It has a huge vocal range (comparitively — most songs, like TMOTTBG, range an octave or so, while the anthem is a full octave and a half, not counting the people who flip the word ‘free’ up to the tonic, resulting in a two octave spread), it’s in 3 (?!), and, oh yeah, it’s too darn long to begin with. And on top of that, nearly everybody tries to make it a grandiose, drawn out, overly romantic song, holding everything out and stretching performance time to two minutes. Maybe twenty percent of the people who sing it do what (IMHO) one should do and just sing it simply. As a result, while I will gladly suffer through Mike Ditka singing TMO, I generally mute the TV or turn down the radio when the Anthem is being sung.

I’m all for patriotism and national pride and all that, but we have a BAAAAAAD National Anthem.

Bleed Cubbie Blue: Like Drāno for your internet tubes.

by znohitter on Jan 5, 2009 2:56 PM CST up reply actions

I think we both agree that these are two songs

that have been treated like no two tunes deserve to be. If they we human, they would be long since dead from the amount of abuse that has been heaped upon them.

"Hats for bats.....keep bats warm." - Pedro Cerrano
"Hey bartender, Jobu needs a refill !!!!!!!" - Eddie Harris

by willie mays hayes' gloves on Jan 5, 2009 3:04 PM CST up reply actions

Yes. Totally agree.

Bleed Cubbie Blue: Like Drāno for your internet tubes.

by znohitter on Jan 5, 2009 9:13 PM CST up reply actions

I think "The Star-Spangled Banner"

is meant to be a sing-along. As you say, it’s derived from an old drinking tune. When a soloist does a drawn-out, self-indulgent take on it, their showboating excludes us from participating.

The Anthem should be heard as an orchestral march, with an upbeat tempo, sung by a choir. Its majesty is revealed in that arrangement, and it is a thrilling experience. When it is sung by Kellie Pickler, it is something to be endured graciously.

"They say we live and learn. Often what we learn is what damn fools we have been." ~Thomas Sowell

by Goodie1969 on Jan 5, 2009 7:15 PM CST up reply actions