June 3
MIGHTY CASEY DAY
There was no joy in Mudville this day in 1888, as Casey at the Bat was first published in The San Francisco Examiner. The author was not given a byline in the paper, but he was given $5. Ernest Thayer wrote a series of comic ballads for the San Francisco paper. Casey at the Bat was the last, and the only one to live on through the years.
William DeWolf Hopper, the well-known actor, first recited the poem at Wallach’s Theatre in New York City this same year. That five minutes and 40 seconds became part of DeWolf Hopper’s repertoire. It is said that he had told the tale of Mudville some 10,000 plus times.
In 1986, the U.S. Library of Congress reissued the poem in both written and recorded formats.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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