Casey at the Bat
Mudville’s Defeat
“Casey at the Bat” is simply one of the most famous sports poems of all time, it is a thirteen stanza poem written by Ernest Lawrence Thayer in 1888. Thayer writes the poem in an AABB rhyming pattern, which means his stanzas are four lines long and that the first two lines will rhyme, and the last two lines will rhyme. The poem is focused around a baseball team in Mudville, who in the bottom of the ninth have seemingly lost hope, unless their star player, Casey, can get his at bat and score. Thayer describes this in the first two stanza’s, “The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day; The score stood four to two with but one inning more to play. And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same, a sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game. A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast; They thought if only Casey could but get a whack at that— We’d put up even money now with Casey at the bat.” With the “Mudville nine” referring to the nine starting players for the Mudville team are losing four to two in the ninth inning with two outs, fans leaving the game thinking they have lost and some staying in hopes that Casey will get to bat and hopefully win the game for them. In the third stanza, Thayer states, “But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,” and in closing this stanza Thayer says, “For there seemed but little chance of Casey’s getting to the bat.” Meaning that there were still two more players that needed to bat before Casey could even get his chance, and with two outs already it seemed unlikely. In the fourth stanza, though, Thayer describes that Flynn had surprisingly hit a single and Blake, who isn’t a fan favorite, hit a double resulting in a man on third and a man on second.
In the fifth stanza, Thayer describes that the “Might Casey” has arrived at bat, and the fans are screaming because Casey represents the winning
“Casey at the Bat” is simply one of the most famous sports poems of all time, it is a thirteen stanza poem written by Ernest Lawrence Thayer in 1888. Thayer writes the poem in an AABB rhyming pattern, which means his stanzas are four lines long and that the first two lines will rhyme, and the last two lines will rhyme. The poem is focused around a baseball team in Mudville, who in the bottom of the ninth have seemingly lost hope, unless their star player, Casey, can get his at bat and score. Thayer describes this in the first two stanza’s, “The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day; The score stood four to two with but one inning more to play. And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same, a sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game. A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast; They thought if only Casey could but get a whack at that— We’d put up even money now with Casey at the bat.” With the “Mudville nine” referring to the nine starting players for the Mudville team are losing four to two in the ninth inning with two outs, fans leaving the game thinking they have lost and some staying in hopes that Casey will get to bat and hopefully win the game for them. In the third stanza, Thayer states, “But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,” and in closing this stanza Thayer says, “For there seemed but little chance of Casey’s getting to the bat.” Meaning that there were still two more players that needed to bat before Casey could even get his chance, and with two outs already it seemed unlikely. In the fourth stanza, though, Thayer describes that Flynn had surprisingly hit a single and Blake, who isn’t a fan favorite, hit a double resulting in a man on third and a man on second.
In the fifth stanza, Thayer describes that the “Might Casey” has arrived at bat, and the fans are screaming because Casey represents the winning