Casey at the Bat - Release 2.0

"Casey at the Bat" was always my favorite poem as a youngster, but now I am beginning to wonder why. In trying to memorize the baseball poem as a mental exercise, I've had occasion to read it over several times as an adult, and I can only shake my head in disappointment.

Consider this: Mudville's opponent was leading 4-3 in the ninth inning. After two outs ("...when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same"), Casey's team then suddenly placed runners at second base and third base ("There was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third").

With the tying and winning runs already in scoring position, two outs, and first base open, why on earth would the opponent pitch to Casey? Obviously, they would not: they would walk Casey intentionally and take their chances with the next (and presumably weaker) hitter. Of course, that might not make for a very interesting poem.

At the very least, the poem needs to be re-written with Casey as the sixth batter in the inning, not the fifth. The batter immediately ahead of Casey then needs to get hit by a pitch or draw a base on balls to load the bases with two outs. Only then would the opponent have to pitch to Casey in a bases loaded, two-out, all-or-nothing, do-or-die situation.

As it stands, "Casey at the Bat" simply has no credibility with regard to baseball strategy. Alas: another childhood icon shattered.

Any aspiring poets out there able to compose some extra lines? The following is my first attempt at a proposed new stanza to be inserted between verses 4 and 5:

"But wait! There's more!" as the TV ads would say.
There's one more noxious batter coming into play.
But contemplating Casey, the pitcher lost control.
He plunked that batter with a pitch and cringed within his soul.

Move over, Ernest Lawrence Thayer.