The surprising feminist history of baseball's biggest anthem

Key Points:

• "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," written in 1908 by Jack Norworth and Albert von Tilzer, became the most popular baseball song of its era, inspired by a dramatic baseball season and widely performed in vaudeville theaters.
• The song features a strong female protagonist, Katie Casey, who passionately engages with baseball, reflecting an early 20th-century celebration of women's involvement in the sport despite the era's limited rights for women.
• Some experts suggest that Katie Casey may have been inspired by Trixie Friganza, a vaudeville star and suffragist who was romantically linked to lyricist Jack Norworth and appeared on some sheet music covers.
• In 1927, Norworth revised the song with a new character, Nelly Kelly, who is portrayed as less assertive than Katie Casey; this version was popularized by Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly in the 1949 film Take Me Out to the Ballgame.
• The tradition of singing the song's chorus during the seventh-inning stretch began 50 years ago with announcer Harry Caray and has since become one of the most recognized tunes in the U.S., alongside "Happy Birthday" and "The Star-Spangled Banner."