Baseball Songs

Subject: Lyr Add: THE DAY THAT I PLAYED BASEBALL
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 31 Jan 21 - 11:38 PM

Lyrics from Flying Cloud, by M. C. Dean [Dean Michael Cassius] (Virginia, MN: The Quickprint, ), page 59:

(Note that there are 2 more verses than the version above, plus numerous small differences in wording.)


THE DAY THAT I PLAYED BASEBALL

Oh, me name it is O’Houlihan; I’m a man that’s influential.
I mind my business, stay at home; me wants are few and small.
But the other day a gang did come; they were filled with whiskey, gin, and rum,
And they took me out in the broiling sun to play a game of ball.

They made me carry all the bats; I thought they’d set me crazy.
They put me out in the center field; sure, I paralyzed them all.
When I put up me hands to stop a fly, holy murther, it struck me in the eye,
And they laid me out by the fence to die on the day that I played baseball.

There was O’Shaughnessy of the second nine; he was throwing them underhanded.
He put a twirl upon them and I couldn’t strike them at all.
The umpire he called strikes on me; “What’s that?” says I; “You’re out,” says he.
Bad luck to you, O’Shaughnessy, and the way that you twirled the ball.

Then I went to bat and I knocked the ball, I thought, to San Francisco.
Around the bases three times three, by heavens, I run them all,
When the gang set up a terrible howl, saying, “O’Houlihan, you struck a foul,”
And they rubbed me down with a Turkish towel on the day that I played baseball.

The catcher swore by the Jack of Trumps that he saw me stealing bases,
And fired me into a keg of beer; I loud for help did call.
I got roaring, staving, stone-blind drunk; I fell in the gutter; I lost my spunk.
I had a head on me like an elephant’s trunk on the day that I played baseball.

The reporters begged to know my name and presented me with a medal.
They asked me for my photograph to hang upon the wall,
Saying, “O’Houlihan, you won the game,” though me head was sore and my shoulder lame,
And they sent me home on a cattle train the day that I played baseball.


The Minnesota Heritage Songbook website has a playable recording by Brian Miller.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE DAY I PLAYED BASE BALL (Pat Rooney)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 31 Jan 21 - 11:35 PM

Back on 11-Apr-1999, Reiver #2 posted a version of this song and asked if anybody knew any more. I found this:

From the sheet music at the Library of Congress:


THE DAY I PLAYED BASE BALL
Words and music by Pat Rooney, ©1878.

1. My name it is O’Halloran; I’m a man that’s influential.
I mind my business, stop at home; my wants are few an’ small.
Some blackguards t’other day did come; they were full of whisky, gin and rum,
An’ they took me out in the broilin’ sun to play a game of ball.

2. They made me carry all the bats; they nearly drove me crazy,
An’ they sent me out in the “centre field,” but I paralyzed them all.
I put my hands to catch a “fly.” Holy murther! It struck me in the eye,
And they hung me on a line to dry, the day I played base ball.

3. I took the bat an’ hit the ball, I thought, to San Francisco,
An’ then around the bases three time I ran them all,
But thin the gang began to howl, an’ they said: “Ould man, you made a foul,”
An’ they rubbed me down with a Turkish towel, the day I played base ball.

4. Two reporters begged to know me name, an’ presinted me wid a medal,
An’ they asked me for me photograph to hang upon the wall.
They said that I had won the game, though my head was broke and my shoulder lame,
An’ they sent me home in a cattle train, the day I played base ball.


There is also said to be a copy in: Pat Rooney’s Claribel Songster (New York: A. J. Fisher, 1882), p. 18, but I haven't seen a copy.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,Ty
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 08:46 AM

Looking for the Denny Mclain song lyrics? It was written by Ernie Harwell.
Thanks

Subject: Lyr Add: BROTHER NOAH GAVE OUT CHECKS FOR RAIN
From: 282RA
Date: 15 Jul 06 - 09:46 PM

Arthur Longbrake wrote a number of baseball poems and some, if not all, were turned into songs. A ragtime singer named Arthur Collins sang the following Longbrake poem which was written about 1906. Collins recorded the song in New York the following year. Comparing the lyrics to the poem, there's not a lot of similarities. Either Longbrake changed some of the verses for the sake of brevity or Collins did. But this was the poem:

BROTHER NOAH GAVE OUT CHECKS FOR RAIN

My sermon today, said Reverend Jones,
is baseball and whence it came.
Now, if you take the Good Book and you take a good look,
you will find the first Baseball Game.
It says Eve stole first, Adam second;
Solomon umpired the game. Rebbecca went to the well with a pitcher,
And Ruth in the field made a name.
Goliath was struck out by David —
A base hit was made on Abel by Cain
And the Prodigal Son made a great home-run.
Brother Noah gave checks out for rain.

Jonah wailed — went down swinging.
Later he popped up again.
A lion-drive by ole Nebuchadnezzar
Made Daniel warm-up in the pen.
Delilah was pitching to Samson,
When he brought down the house with a clout,
And the Angels that day made a double-play
That's when Adam and Eve were thrown out.

Ole St. Pete was checking errors,
Also had charge of the gate.
Salome sacrificed Big John the Baptist
Who wound up ahead on the plate.
Satan was pitching that apple
And looked as though he might fan 'em all,
But then Joshua let go a mighty blow
And blasted one right at the wall.
And then the Lord wound up and took good aim,
And started the very First Baseball Game.
And, now we all know the way that the game was begun,
And to this very day — It's still Number One!

Subject: Lyr Add: BASEBALL ON THE BLOCK (McCutcheon & Kahn)
From: Lucius
Date: 15 Jul 06 - 08:12 PM

I have to weigh in with my favorite all time baseball song (as baseball is my other passion).
This one brings tears to my eyes every spring.
Since John McCutcheon already has these on his site, I hope that it is fair game.

Baseball on the Block -John McCutcheon & Si Kahn

Just a stick and a ball and a neighborhood call
And a space big enough for a game...

Third base is Eddie's old shirt
Second is Schmidt's Chevrolet
I had a sure double, I was just rounding first
When Schmidt's Mom drove second away
The grownups all sit on the doorsteps
Watching us play in the street
And the ev'ning feels lazy as softball
As it comes at you slow, sure and sweet

And it's one, two, three and you're out
Two, three, four balls you walk
The bases are loaded, I'm standing alone
Give me a sweet one, I'll bring us all home
These are the best days that I've ever known
Baseball on the block

At night we all listen to our radios
And follow each twist of the game
We know all the numbers, we know all the teams
We know every player by name
All those kids who once played in the sandlots
And did all the stuff that we do
With a ball and a glove and a game that we love
They're not that much different from you

It's a hit in the gap, it's a sacrifice fly
It's one hit shut-out through four
It's a Texas-league double, a hit-and-run play
With one in position to score
It's the old "hidden ball" trick, a looper to right
The runners are looking to go
He shakes off a sign, checks the lead-off at first
Here's the wind-up, the stretch and the throw

So Willie, say hey, don't you wanna play
Meet me in the street after noon
Gimme low and away and I'll hit 'em all day
To the man who lives up in the moon

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Kaleea
Date: 14 Jul 06 - 02:10 PM

When I was little, a family member thought it would be fun to teach me "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" they way they sang it. A pickup note is added so that the first word is one note ahead of the normal first note of the melody. The words are one note ahead of where they would normally be sung in the melody, all the way through. Therefore, the last word, "game" is sung on the next to last note, leaving the melody unresolved. It makes people absolutely crazy!

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: breezy
Date: 14 Jul 06 - 12:55 PM

I just came back to the U K after hearing, seeing experiencing Chuck brodsky so I know now why the cubs will never win big time

Its the Curse - of the Billy Goat

I am pleased to have Tulips and to have seen the man who blew kisses

The album also features The Deathrow All stars and a highly amusing Great Santa Snowball Debacle of 1968

the album features Liar Liar, a subtle comment on the shitemaison   captain

the ballad of D B Cooper is excellent so is
two left feet

and the researched story of Mary the Elelphant that was hung

I realy like the Point as i play table tennis with my kids,

Chuck Brodsky connects


'In the beginning' the only one credited away, by Nick Annis

This was/is a jewel of an album

It was worth the trip

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Jul 06 - 12:46 AM

THE GREATEST, written by Don Schlitz, recorded by Kenny Rogers.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,Joe Pickering Jr.
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 07:48 AM

The CD Baseball's Songs Sports Heroes has been added to the National Baseball Hall of Fame collection. One of the songs Babe Ruth's Curse 1 is in the HBO movie The Curse of the Bambino. Three lyrics are in the recently published major sports book by Harvey and Frederic Frommer.

    Check it out on www.kingoftheroadmusic. It is available on internet companies as well as digital download Apple i Tunes etc.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 09 Oct 04 - 02:51 PM

There is a series of at least 6 albums (with about 20 songs each) called "Diamond Cuts". And let's not forget the great PP&M song "Right Field" that Paul does lead on. "Diamond Cuts" in its various volumns can probably be obtained through Chuck Brodsky. I bought my copies from him, plus his own CD, since my last post back in March.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,Dean Taylor
Date: 09 Oct 04 - 09:36 AM

Listen to the new baseball song that I wrote with Willie McCulloch. Go to www.music75.com/deantaylor and listen to Play The Game.
Dean

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,Lis
Date: 23 May 04 - 11:12 PM

I was just told to listen to Kenny Rodgers song "The baseball song" I've never heard of it before and I wasn't sure anything about it...anyone have information on it?? I searched it in the search engine but didn't come up with anything...

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,Howie Newman
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 03:38 PM

In reference to some comments about "Blasted in the Bleachers," I'd like to set the record straight. I recorded the song at a concert and released it on my own label in 1976. I did a studio version in in 1980.

(John Lincoln Wright also did a baseball song in the 1970s but not "Blasted in the Bleachers.")

The live version is on my "Baseball's Greatest Hits" CD, which is available on CD Baby and from me directly. The studio version is from a CD called "Here We Go Again." You can find them both on CD Baby.

Chuck Brodsky's CD is "Baseball Ballads," which is a terrific collection of 10 baseball songs. You can order from Chuck's Web site.
Chuck and I did an all-baseball show (I opened, he was the feature) at a Boston-area coffeehouse in August of 2003.

If you need any more info, go to www.cdbaby.com, look me up and send an e-mail.

Howie

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 20 Mar 04 - 11:50 AM

My, my, how quickly we forget. Never mind Mickey Mantle, or Joe Dimaggio. How about Litte Harry Hughes? He went out with his playmates and the very first ball he hit broke ALL the windows in the neighbor's house. Poor little Harry. When he went to retrieve the ball, out came a gypsy lady and enticed him into the house. And then she took out her little pen knife and cut off his little head. And now he'll play at ball no more, little Harry Hughes is dead.

Ask Nelstone's Hawiaans about it. Their recording of Fatal Flower Garden is on the Anthology of American Folk Music.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: ray bucknell
Date: 20 Mar 04 - 08:27 AM

Chuck Brodsky has released an entire CD of his baseball-themed songs entitled "Baseball Ballads." All the Brodsky songs mentioned above are included, along with several others. I bought the CD for my Little Leaguer son as a Christmas present but I don't know what he's done with it, so I can't list the songs at the moment. I will post again should I run across it.

                                     'Ray

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 10:04 PM

Hi Denise,

I found one verse of "Daddy, Don't Let Your Babies Grow
Up to be Cubs Fans"...here.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 06:06 PM

Three of the above comments mentioned Chuck Brodsky's songs. Actually, he has at least six(at last count) songs that are in the Baseball Hall Of Fame. Chuck is a great performer, writer, and nice guy (in spite of one of his song's title--"No More Mr. Nice Guy"). His song "Moe Berg" tells the true story of a catcher who was also a spy for the CIA! And "Letters in the Dirt" is a really powerful song.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,denise
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 04:24 PM

I'm looking for the words to "Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cub Fans". I heard it around 1989-1990. I'm a Cardinals Fan.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,Tom Nelligan
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 09:40 PM

To belatedly follow up on a posting from last summer, "Blasted In the Bleachers" was written by Maine native and longtime Cambridge resident John Lincoln Wright, who recorded it back in the 70s with his band (the Sourmash Boys) under the name Pine Tree John & The Designated Hitters. Oh, for the days of $2 bleacher seats at Fenway Park...

And to reinforce a couple other references, for anyone interested in the baseball/folk connection, the work of Chuck Brodsky is essential. The most recent time I heard him, in February, he said he's going to release a collection of his baseball songs since he now has nine of them, "enough for a lineup". Obviously a National League guy.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE RUBAIYAT OF JOE TINKER
From: Abby Sale
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 06:29 PM

Joe Tinker was mentioned above. Seems he was quite a Name and a baseball hero & manager in his day. I know there were several songs about him. He lived here in Orlando and we still have Tinker Field and the Tinker Building (although I haven't researched either.) Because the name is of minor importance to my family and to appease the "Happy!" file, I found the following:

 

The Rubaiyat of Joe Tinker

      (The Rise and Fall of a Manager)

Before the phantoms of the last year died,
Loudly a voice at Cincinnati cried---
"Come to our city, Joe, and lead the Reds---
You'll be our idol and our only Pride!

"You shall be manager, in fact and name---
You shall control, and you shall run the game---
No one shall say a word but you---
Come, hurry, Joe!"--- and eagerly I came.

I strove and struggled, and I broke my neck,
To lead the club, which soon became a wreck---
And, when I tried to use my own ideas,
I found I was--- a three-spot in the deck!

There was the wall, o'er which I could not climb---
There was the hook, that threatened all the time---
The garden of red peaches promised me
Bore, as it's fruit, a lemon and a lime!

I fought in vain--- the walls were high and thick
And those who held them plugged me with a brick.
The season ended, and I strove to gain
Authority--- and got a lovely kick.

Oh, for my old job, as in days of yore,
With Evers working at my side once more---
No management for mine, but just the chance
To make the Red directors good and sore!

 
 

                   » The Rubaiyat of Joe Tinker
                   Article in Baseball Magazine
                   February, 1914 (Vol. 12, Issue 4) -- p. 6

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: mousethief
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 01:18 PM

The object of baseball is to run around in a circle more times than your opponents.

Widdershins, even!

Alex

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 01:17 PM

The Ballad of the Pine Tarred Bat was written, I think, by Red River Dave McEnery. While not a song, an item that might be of interest to folk with inclination toward baseball, is George Carlin's rountine comparing baseball to football. He mentions such things as the object of football is to "ram the ball into the end zone". The obect of baseball is "to get home". Football is played on a "gridiron". Baseball is played on a "field". Etc.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: mousethief
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 11:56 AM

Zanzibar by Billy Joel (which has nothing to do with Africa but is about a lounge lizard in a bar called Zanzibar) contains the lines:

Rose he knows he's such a credit to the game
But the Yankees grab the headlines every time
Melodrama's so much fun
In black and white for everyone to see

Me I'm trying just to get to second base
And I'd steal it if she only gave the sign
She's gonna give the go-ahead
The inning isn't over yet for me, for me

---------
posted by: Alex

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,Rich O'C
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 11:17 AM

There is a great baseball tune on the Billy Bragg & Wilco CD of Hank Williams poems called 'Joe DeMaggio's done it again'. This album (Mermaid Avenue Volume 2) is a collection of lyrics that Williams never put to music so Bragg and Jeff Tweedy do the honors. Many other great songs grace this CD, too.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: masato sakurai
Date: 07 May 02 - 09:05 PM

The Levy Collection has 100 baseball-related songs (just type "baseball" in the search box).

~Masato

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: 53
Date: 07 May 02 - 08:35 PM

Centerfield by John Fogerty.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: pattyClink
Date: 07 May 02 - 05:01 PM

'nother ex-Cub fan here. Thanks guys for the memory trip back to the left field bleachers. What a place, what a time (the agonizing 1969-1973 years).

Jimmy G, somehow the Holy Mackerel song made it into my brain's hardwire circuits, if you don't get an official version I'll scrape together mine and post it later.

Other songs I can recall: It's a Beautiful Day for a Ball Game. And There Used to be a Ballpark.

And thanks, 'Catter who posted the Dying Fan's song, I hadn't seen that. I moved away, and then when They broke my heart again in 87, I gave Them up for good. Still love that beautiful park, though, always will.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,Sonja
Date: 07 May 02 - 04:13 PM

Lyrics and chords to Right Field

Sonja

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,Les Play
Date: 07 May 02 - 04:03 PM

Roger, Isn't it "Shoeless Joe From Hannibal, Mo?"

Then there's the one PP&M sing called "Right Field."

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,Reiver 2 (Bryce)
Date: 14 Aug 01 - 12:13 AM

I found the listing...thanks! Is there anyway to access the lyrics from the Library of Congress? I couldn't find any. I'm sure that's the same song and I'd sure like to get the complete lyrics.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Jacob B
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 11:49 PM

A couple of other baseball songs that I used to hear on folk radio:

Blasted In The Bleachers, with the chorus

Let's get blasted in the bleachers, go insane
....
....
We can even watch the game
We don't need no runs or hits
Just a six pack of Schlitz
Win or lose, it's all the same
It's only a game

and Man, How Did We Ever Blow That Lead.

I believe they were both written by Boston area songwriters.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,Reiver 2 (Bryce)
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 03:11 PM

Many thanks for the above information, Jim!!! (It took awhile... but I DID get back.) I'll try to look up the references.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Mar 01 - 06:12 PM

Bryce: (if you're still around) This web page called A Bibliography of Published Baseball Music and Songs at the Library of Congress -- contains the following listing:

140. THE DAY I PLAYED BASE BALL (IRISH COMIC SONG). Rooney, Pat (m & w). New York: E.H. Harding, 1878. (M1978.S7R) 10003 J2.

I also found that the Sons of the Pioneers recorded a song called "Day I Played Baseball," which is credited to someone named Rooney. It is on their 5-CD compilation, "Songs of the Prairie," 1998.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From:
Date: 18 Jan 01 - 10:56 PM

Chuck Brodsky's "Lefty" has already been mentioned. He wrote another great baseball song called "Letters In the Dirt" about Phillies great Richie Allen. I think it's the title song from one of his CD's.

Subject: Lyr Add: A SONG ABOUT BASEBALL (Bob Bennett)
From: mousethief
Date: 18 Jan 01 - 03:14 PM

A SONG ABOUT BASEBALL
Bob Bennett

Saturdays on the baseball field
And me afraid of the ball
Just another kid on camera day
When the Angels still played in L.A.
I was smiling
In living black and white

Baseball caps and bubble gum
"I think there's a hole in my glove."
Three-and-two, life and death,
I was swinging with eyes closed, holding my breath
I was dying
On my way to the bench

But none of it mattered after the game
When my father would find me and call out my name
A snow cone, a soft drink, a candy bar
A limousine ride in the family car
He loved me, no matter how I played

But none of it mattered after the game
When my father would find me and call out my name
Dreaming of glory the next time out
My father showed me what love was about
He loved me, no matter how I played

But none of it mattered after the game...

-------------------

posted by: Alex

Subject: Lyr Add: NIGHT GAME (Paul Simon)^^
From: mousethief
Date: 15 Jan 01 - 02:58 PM

I think the Monkee's baseball game is one of my faves. The Paul Simon song is as follows:

Night Game
Paul Simon
(from Still Crazy After All These Years, 1975)

There were two men down
And the score tied
In the bottom of the eighth
When the pitcher died

And they laid his spikes
On the pitcher's mound
And his uniform was torn
And his number was left on the ground

Then the night turned cold
Colder than the moon
The stars were white as bones
The stadium was old
Older than the screams
Older than the teams

There were three men down
And the season lost
And the tarpaulin was rolled
Upon the winter frost

--------

Alex

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 15 Jan 01 - 02:47 PM

Liam's Brother - that quote was, I think, from the 1950's or 60's.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: GUEST,Bob Schwarer
Date: 15 Jan 01 - 07:05 AM

Only a month until spring training starts. We have 18 or so Tiger games to go to here in Lakeland. Buy tickets next week. Then 5 months of class A Tigers.

Things are looking up. Still a Cub fan though.

Bob S (phideaux earlier in this thread)

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 15 Jan 01 - 06:32 AM

chanteyranger, I take it that was quote was not made while Walter Johnson was pitching for the Senators.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 15 Jan 01 - 02:29 AM

The owner of the old Washington Senators once said "Our fans want to see homeruns, and this year we've put together a pitching staff that'll give the fans what they want!"

-chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 15 Jan 01 - 02:25 AM

There's a song about Tigers pitcher Denny McClain, composed after his incredible season (1968?) when he won over 30 games. The chorus is, "Denny McClain, Denny McClain, there's never been any like Denny McClain." Don't know the verses.

My local heroes, the San Francisco Giants, have a theme song that's played at the opening of each radio broadcast. Unfortunately, only the instrumental version is played. It's been so long since I've heard it sung, I can only remember the opening line - "When the Giants come to town, it's bye, bye, baby." It refers to former announcer Russ Hodges homerun call - "You can tell it 'Bye, Bye, Baby'!!!" An appropriate song, since they had Mays, McCovey, and Cepeda playing together for several years.

-chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Sarah2
Date: 14 Jan 01 - 08:00 PM

Didn't Goodman also write a song called "He Ain't Bowie Kuehn"? I think he sang it on that last special he did for TV before he died and I was choking to keep from laughing so I wouldn't miss any words.

(We watch the Cubs here all the time -- me mum, who lives with me (not the other way around; trust me, there's a major difference!), has been a Cubs fan since Quinn Ryan was the announcer. Me da used to call himself a baseball widower. The woman keeps player stat cards all summer... She thinks cable TV is a gift of God, because she can now get WGN. She's 84 and can still shag balls for the kids, at least for a while.)

There was a Tom Waits song, too: "Sight for Sore Eyes." The chorus went

Hey barkeep, what's keeping you? -- keep pourin' drinks
For all these palookas; hey, ya know what I thinks?
That we drink to old days and DiMaggio, too
Old Drysdale and Maris, Mickey Mantle and you.

Sarah

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 14 Jan 01 - 07:37 PM

Bob Conroy and I are putting the finishing touches on a new CD. One of the songs is The Day I Played Base Ball (sic). We got it from Sheehan & Jones' "The Ash Box Inspector's Songster" of 1879. The singer's name was Pat Rooney and the words are similar to (but not the same) as those posted by Reiver#2 above.

All the best,
Dan Milner

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From:
Date: 22 Apr 99 - 01:20 AM

The Bible baseball song is called "First Baseball Game" and was written in 1948. I am looking for the lyrics after hearing part of it at the beginning of a Mariners game.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 11 Apr 99 - 02:44 PM

Here's one from 1950's summer camp in New Hampshire:

Hello Mamie Reilly, how are you today?
Hello Mamie Reilly, I hear you're going away.
Come and kiss your mother before you say goodbye.
Hello, hello, hello Mamie Reilly.

Slide, Kelly, slide. Casey's at the bat.
Where in the heck did you get that baseball hat?
Way down in old Virginny.
Hello, hello, hello Mamie Reilly.

Mark

Subject: Lyr Add: The Day I Played Baseball^^
From: Reiver #2 (inactive)
Date: 11 Apr 99 - 11:51 AM

My dad's health was never very good, and he spent a lot of time listening to the Cubs games on the radio when I was a young boy. We lived in southern Wisconsin and this was in the mid 1930s. He taught me how to keep score, and I used to listen to the games with him and keep a scorecard. I even remember Gabby Hartnett's "homer in the gloamin' when the Cubs went on to win the pennant in '38. My dad used to sing a song that I've never heard of or seen mentioned anywhere else. I have no idea where he learned it. He used to sing it with a kind of (poorly done) Irish accent. As near as I can remember, it went something like this:

The Day I Played Baseball

Me name it is, Waddle-de-wee,
Me name is Influenza,
I moind me bizness, stay to home,
Me wants are few and small.
Until one day some blaggards come,
With whiskey, gin, and wine and rum,
And hauled me out in the b'ilin' sun,
To play a game of ball.

The Chicago nine had Spaulding out,
His pitchin' was underhanded,
And when he got on the Caballico Twist.
Sure, an' no one could hit him at all.
The umpire called three strikes on me.
"How's that?," sez I, "Yer out!", sez he.
I lit on his nose like an angry flea,
The day I played baseball.

I picked up a bat, I hit the ball,
I thought 'twas in San Francisco.
I run the bases three by three,
I run the bases all.
The crowd let out with a horrible howl,
Saying, "Good auld boy, ye hit a foul."
They rubbed me down with a Turkish Towel,
The day I played baseball.

(A couple of lines I can't remember)
They put me out in the centerfield.
I paralyzed them all.
I put up me hands to catch a fly,
When, Holy Mither, she hit me eye.
They hung me on the fence to dry,
The day I played baseball.

I think there may have been another verse which I've forgotton, too. Anyway, if ANYONE out there has heard of this song or knows anything about it, or anything that resembles it, I'd greatly appreciate hearing from you. Many thanks.

Bryce [e-mail]

HTML line breaks added. -JoeClone 29-Mar-01.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Somebuddy
Date: 10 Apr 99 - 06:29 PM

Get some songs!!!!!!

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: tomtom
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 10:35 AM

B. Dylan has kind of a rare one called "Catfish" about Catfish Hunter. "Catfish, Million Dollar Man/ No one throws the ball like Catfish can."

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 07:21 PM

Folk music and Baseball...those have been my life's passions. Just retired from the Toronto Arts slow pitch softball league a year ago. Not through age and infirmity (although I have both) but because we bought a house, and spare nights are now for money earning endeavors (teaching) instead of rumbling 'round the base paths. About 10 years ago one wise acre on the Yuk Yuks team (stand up comics, would you believe) stuck me with the name "around the bases in 80 days!" after I had been thrown out at first...by the RIGHT FIELDER! Ohh, the humiliation. The trick is, as you get older, to just keep finding worse leagues to play in and that way your skills don't seem to diminish at all...until one day, you drop dead! Once in an old Sing Out I saw the song "Old Satch". Not much of a song, but I'll always remember seeing him when he pitched relief for the Columbus Clippers. Well actually I saw him sitting in his rocking chair in the bullpen.

Subject: RE: Baseball Songs
From: Antionette
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 04:10 PM

Do you have the words to "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?"