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| Interpretation Activity #2:
Baseball Poems |
 Believe
it or not there are a lot of poems written about baseball. In this activity you are
going to take a look at two of the most famous poems about baseball. |
| In May 1888, Ernest Thayer
wrote "Casey at the Bat" and on June 3 William Randolph Hurst published it in
his newspaper. Thayer wrote his columns for the newspaper using the name "Phin"
and it would be several years before the true author of "Casey" would be
determined. To read the "Story Behind Casey at the Bat" go to this website http://www.historybuff.com/library/refcasey.html
To read more about Ernest Thayer and Casey go to http://tsn.sportingnews.com/archives/baseball/94640.html
|
Your Assignment:
|
In another famous baseball
poem, "Tinker to Evers to Chance" (1912) by Franklin Pierce Adams, you
will read about one of the best double play combinations in baseball history.
Infielders Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance led the Chicago Cubs to four
National League pennants (1906-8, 1910) and two World Series wins (1907-8).
- Go to this site and read the poem "Tinker to Evers to
Chance" http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bbhtml/bb1.html
- Many years later Steve Vittori (1989) wrote another poem called
"Tinker to Evers" Go to this site and read the poem http://baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_tink.shtml
- Open a Word document. Write at least one paragraph on how
these two poems are different? What point was the author of each poem trying to
make? What are your feelings about the poems?
- Unlike Casey, Tinker, Evers and Chance were real players. Go
to the Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bbhtml/bbhome.html
to see their
 baseball cards and read about this baseball card
collection from 1887-1914. You can browse by alphabetical player name.
- Look closely at the statistics on the back of the cards.
- Using drawing paper draw a baseball card for Joe Tinker, Johnny
Evers or Frank Chance.
- After looking at "real" baseball cards you are ready to
design baseball cards for Casey and the Mudville Nine from "Casey at the Bat".
You aren't going to have real statistics so you can make them up. The Cosmic
Baseball Association played a game of fantasy baseball using the Mudville Nine as one of
their teams. You can see their stats here. http://www.cosmicbaseball.com/mudpp.html
- Go to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/ and see
if Tinker, Evers and Chance were inducted into the Hall of Fame. If they were, when?
 Just
For Fun!
Here's a baseball poem with a fun twist. Read the New Kid by
Mike Makley (1975)http://baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_new.shtml
|
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read the poem "Casey's Revenge" 