Casey at the Bat: Only half of the American story
There is no joy in Mudville, for the Mighty Casey has struck out.
Forget Shakespeare: Perhaps the greatest modern tragedy could be the story of Casey at the Bat.
The Mudville Nine make a miraculous comeback, with two struggling hitters reaching base to bring the team superstar, Casey, to the plate with the opportunity to win the game.
Spoiling the ending: Casey whiffs. Mudville loses. No Disney ending to this story.
Since it was penned 120 years ago, the story has broken the hearts of generations of American children.
But Casey isn’t the only hero...
Also, I'd note that baseball's best hitter don't fail 70% of the time - 60% maybe, but no 70% - you can't call a walk a failure, so 1-OBP is a better metric for the "% of failure."
From the title of this piece, I thought a more salient point was going to be made: the pitcher succeeds. One should give the pitcher credit for striking out the mighty Casey in a pressure situation.
You misspelled Mudville. Good job, summer fact-checkers!
Baseball was a lot more fun in the old days: a larger strike zone, fewer walks, fewer home runs, less scoring, and perhaps best of all, FAR fewer tv or radio commercials.
Today's game lasts about 3 hours. In the old days they lasted 2 hours or less. We even had 3 1/2 to 4 hour double headers way back then!
It would be nice if we could again have the good old days of baseball and if the American Dream could be a reality for everyone.
I now what you mean about hearing of Casey for the first time in Grade School. Pure devastation...from which I never recovered...until reading your wonderful rendition. Well done...and thank you!