Caseyatthe.blog

Yogi, Poet Laureate of Baseball

Yogi, Poet Laureate of Baseball

On his birthday #OTD May 12, 1925, Caseyatthe.blog salutes Yogi Berra, Baseball Hall of Fame catcher and manager, Yankee immortal, and Poet Laureat...

Casey in Ulalysium

Now come the dreary days of October, when the hopes of the fans of 28 major league teams have been dashed--with the dreams of the 29th about to be ...

Casey on the Bench 1897-1900: Mighty Hopper Strikes Out

Thanks to Anika Orrock, artist, author, and illustrator of the featured image above ("The Mudville Nine"), used here with her permission. Of all t...

Ballad of the Republic: The Arming of the Man

August 14 is the date to celebrate the birthday of Ernest Lawrence Thayer (1863) and also the debut performance in 1888 of Thayer's "Casey at the B...

Ambrose Bierce and The Fall of the Republic

Demagogues fixed a predatory eye on the inherent flaws of the American Republic. Like buzzards they circled the wounded behemoth thrashing in a bo...

Pathos and Baseball: Revisiting "Casey at the Bat"

I think the popular focus on Casey and his strikeout, rather than on the victorious pitcher, illustrates the wisdom and poetic sensibility of c...

The Ballad of Sam Winslow

If the companions of our childhood should turn out to be heroes, and their condition regal, it would not surprise us. [1] ...

Misappropriation of the Classics, Part II: Horatius Reawakened

On December 11 of last year, Caseyatthe.blog called out the misleading and "pernicious misappropriation" of an ancient Roman legend by right-wing p...

Casey Stops by the Ball Park on a Snowy Evening

“One of the hardest things in life to accept is a called third strike.” -- Robert Frost (1874-1963) Whose field this was I used to know But tha...

Misappropriation of the Classics: "Horatius" Reclaimed

Since its inception in 2018, Caseyatthe.blog has tried --and mostly succeeded--to steer clear of the reefs and shoals of political discourse. (On...

Donald Hall on "Casey at the Bat:" A Ballad of the Republic

Educator, critic, and fourteenth United States poet laureate (2006-2007), Donald Hall (September 20, 1928 – June 23, 2018) penned an Afterword to...

The Love Song of E. "Phineas" Thayer

The Love Song of E. "Phineas" Thayer, was awarded Honorable Mention in the Print/Online Article category of the 89th Annual Writer's Digest Writing...

"Casey's" First Draft: Song of a Captain Bold

In his final 1887 ballad for the San Francisco Examiner, Ernest Thayer abandoned his variations on the absurd complexities of the love tri...