For a relatively short poem apparently dashed off quickly (and denied by its author for years), "Casey at the Bat" had a profound effect on American popular culture. It has been
recited, re-enacted,
adapted, dissected, parodied, and subjected to just about every other treatment one could imagine. In this version, Rice cites the nickname "Strike-Out Casey", hence the influence on
Casey Stengel's name. Casey's team is down
three runs by the last of the ninth, and once again Casey is down to two strikes—with the bases full this time. However, he connects, and hits the ball so far that it is never found. • "Casey - Twenty Years Later", by Clarence P. McDonald (1908), imagines a different redemption for Casey, long after his retirement. The poem, which was indeed published twenty years after the original, in the San Francisco Examiner, sees Casey attending a championship game between the fictional team of "Bugville" and an unspecified opponent. In a losing effort, Bugville's players are benched and injured throughout the game, until the captain is forced to call for a volunteer from the attendees. An aged Casey answers the call and fills the role surprisingly well, culminating with him hitting the game-winning home run, in his first swing at bat. He then reveals his identity to the joyous fans and players. • In response to the popularity of the 1946 Walt Disney animated adaptation, Disney made a sequel,
Casey Bats Again (1954), in which Casey's nine daughters redeem his reputation. • In 1988, on the 100th anniversary of the poem,
Sports Illustrated writer
Frank Deford constructed a fanciful story (later expanded to book form) for what happened before and after the famous ball game.
Parodies Of the many
parodies made of the poem, some of the notable ones include: •
Mad magazine republished the original version of the poem in the 1950s with artwork by
Jack Davis and no alterations to the text. Later lampoons in
Mad included "'Cool' Casey at the Bat" (1960), an interpretation of the poem in
beatnik style, with artwork by
Don Martin although the ending still has Casey striking out; "Casey at the Dice" in 1969, about a professional gambler; "Casey at the Contract Talks" in 1974 (which ends with the owner telling Casey to "practice hard at home this year 'cause now you've struck out twice"); Casey at the Talks" in 1977, a "modern" version of the famed poem in which Mudville tries unsuccessfully to sign free agent Casey [the last line of which is "Mighty Casey has held out"]; "Baseball at the Bat", a satire on baseball itself, "Howard at the Mike", about
Howard Cosell; "Casey at the Byte" (1985), a tale of a cocky young computer expert who accidentally erases the White House Budget Plan; "Clooney as the Bat", a mockery of
George Clooney's role as
Batman in
Batman and Robin; and in 2006 as "Barry at the Bat", poking fun at
Barry Bonds' alleged involvement in the
BALCO scandal; in 2001, "Jordan at the Hoop", satirizing
Michael Jordan's return to the NBA and his time with the
Washington Wizards; and in 2012, "Casey at the Trial", satirizing Casey Anthony's acquittal in the case of
the death of her daughter Caylee. It also includes a "Poetry Round Robin" where famous poems are rewritten in the style of the next poet in line, featured Casey at the Bat as written by
Edgar Allan Poe. • Sportswriter
Leonard Koppett claimed in a 1979 tongue-in-cheek article that the published poem omits 18 lines penned by Thayer, which changed the overall theme of the poem. Koppett added lines, claiming to have transcribed them off an old phonograph recording, that take the pitch count on Casey to full. Meanwhile, his uncle Arnold stirs up wagering action in the stands, before a wink passes between them. Casey throws the game. •
Foster Brooks ("the Lovable Lush" from the
Dean Martin Show) wrote "Riley on the Mound", which recounts the story from the pitcher's perspective. *In his 1987 Baseball Abstract,
Bill James published "Casey Chases A Knuckler", which employed a five-line stanza and AAAAB structure, about former MLB knuckleball pitcher
Charlie Hough • Author Phil Bolsta penned a parody entitled "Hrbek at the Bat" about Twins slugger
Kent Hrbek which was published in 1987 in the Minneapolis Review of Baseball. • Radio performer
Garrison Keillor's parodic version of the poem reimagines the game as a road game, instead of a home game, for the Mudville team. The same events occur with Casey striking out in the ninth inning as in the original poem, but with everything told from the perspective of other team. • An episode of
Tiny Toon Adventures featured a short titled "Buster at the Bat", where
Sylvester provides narration as Buster goes up to bat. The poem was parodied again for an episode of
Animaniacs, this time with
Wakko as the title character and Yakko narrating. Both versions end on a happier note with the main character hitting a home run. • In the fourth season of
Garfield and Friends the episode entitled "Mind Over Matter/Orson at the Bat/Multiple Choice Cartoon" features Wade Duck narrating a parody of the poem as Orson Pig experiences it in a dream sequence. • In
The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius episode "Return of the Nanobots", Cindy's poem is identical to the ending of "Casey at the Bat" but replaces Mudville with Retroville and the last famed line with "cause Jimmy is an idiot!" •
The New York Times published a parody by Hart Seely and
Frank Cammuso in which the poem was narrated by
Phil Rizzuto, a
New York Yankees announcer who was known to veer off on tangents while calling the game. The poem was later published in Seely and Cammuso's book,
2007 Eleven And Other American Comedies. •
David Pogue penned a parody version titled 'A Desktop Critic: Steven Saves the Mac' for
Macworld magazine that ran in their October 1999 issue. It tells the story of
Steve Jobs' triumphant return to a struggling
Apple Inc and his early efforts to reverse the company's fortunes. •
Dick Flavin wrote a version titled Teddy at the Bat, after
Boston Red Sox legend
Ted Williams died in July 2002. Flavin performed the poem at
Fenway Park during the night-long tribute to Williams done at the park later that month. The poem replaced Flynn and Blake with
Bobby Doerr and
Johnny Pesky, the batters who preceded Williams in the 1946 Red Sox lineup. • In 2000, Michael J. Farrand adapted the
rhyming scheme, tone, and
theme of the poem—while reversing the outcome—to create his poem "The Man Who Gave All the Dreamers in Baseball Land Bigger Dreams to Dream" about
Kirk Gibson's home run off
Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the 1988
World Series. The poem appears at the
Baseball Almanac. • Norman Jackman wrote a reversed-outcome version in 1951 called "Bobby Thomson at the Bat," which went unknown for over 60 years until the
San Francisco Giants published it in 2012. It's about
Thomson's famous home run in a 1951 Giant-Dodger playoff game. In 2016, the poem was accepted into the poetry files of the National Baseball Library and Archive of the
Hall of Fame. •
The New York Times best-selling author and poet laureate of The Ringer,
Shea Serrano, penned a loving tribute to
NBA player
Gordon Hayward in the vein of "Casey at the Bat" in 2017. • Canadian comedy duo
Wayne and Shuster created "Shakespearean Baseball", featuring
William Shakespeare-esque characters and dialogue in a skit based upon the poem. They performed the play on
The Ed Sullivan Show and on Canadian TV numerous times between the 1950s and 1980s. • Baseball writer and
Villanova professor Mitchell Nathanson updated the poem for contemporary times in 2019, publishing "Casey @ the Bat" in
The Washington Post.
Translations There are three known translations of the poem into a foreign language, one in French, written in 2007 by French Canadian linguist Paul Laurendeau, with the title
Casey au bâton, and two in Hebrew. One by the sports journalist Menachem Less titled "התור של קייסי לחבוט" [Hator Shel Casey Lachbot, and the other more recent and more true to the original cadence and style by Jason H. Elbaum called קֵיסִי בַּמַּחְבֵּט [Casey BaMachbayt].
Names Casey Stengel describes in his autobiography how his original nickname "K.C." (for his hometown,
Kansas City, Missouri) evolved into "Casey". It was influenced not just by the name of the poem, which was widely popular in the 1910s, but also because he tended to strike out frequently in his early career so fans and writers started calling him "strikeout Casey". ==Contemporary culture==