Boise Post Office Invites Community to Celebrate Release of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” Night at Hawks Memorial Stadium
Boise—The most popular song in baseball, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is getting its own stamp. The seventh-inning sing-along celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, and the United States Postal Service is covering all the bases for this one.
The Take Me Out to the Ball Game stamp was nationally dedicated on Wednesday, July 16, in a ceremony held on the White House lawn. However, on Friday 08-08-08, the Boise Post Office and the Boise Hawks will celebrate the 1908 debut of the song and 1908 Chicago Cubs’ last World Series win.
The Boise Post Office will be on hand to provide a special pictorial postmark with the purchase of the Take Me Out to the Ball Game stamp souvenir envelope. Fans and souvenir collectors can purchase the envelope for $3.00 prior to the 6:30 Boise Hawks autograph session. Bring the kids out to meet the Hawks and get a souvenir envelope autographed! Fans can also sign-up to win a framed Take Me Out to the Ball Game stamp art and gift basket that includes a Boise Hawks jersey and autographed baseball .
To honor the 1908 Cubs championship team, the Boise Hawks — Class-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs — will wear replica 1908 uniforms. The uniforms are currently being auctioned online, with the bidding ending at 10 p.m. on August 8th. For more information on the auction, go to the Boise Hawks website at http://www.boisehawks.com.
Boise Postmaster Dan Frasier will throw out the first pitch.
There will be a presentation of the Take Me Out to the Ball Game framed stamp art to the Boise Hawks Baseball Club during the 7th inning stretch, and everyone will be encouraged to sing-along in honor of the 100th anniversary of the song.
The evening will conclude with fireworks.
Pitch in for needy children
The Postal Service has also teamed up with Little League Baseball and Pitch In For Baseball; an organization whose mission is to help kids all over the world by sharing the great American pastime. They collect gently used baseball equipment, like gloves, bats, and balls, and distribute them to young people in need. Their motto says it all: “Let your equipment play extra innings.” To find out how you can pitch in, go to www.usps.com/baseball or visit the USPS booth for more details.
About the stamp
This 2008 stamp issuance commemorates the 100th anniversary of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” one of the most popular baseball songs of all time. For decades, the song’s catchy chorus has been part of the musical tradition at ballparks around the country, especially during the seventh-inning stretch.
The Take Me Out to the Ball Game stamp was officially dedicated on Wednesday, July 16, 2008, in a ceremony held on the White House lawn.
This 42-cent stamp was created by Richard Sheaff. Since 1983, he has been a design consultant to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, and in that capacity has been responsible for the design or art direction of more than 300 U.S. postage stamps.
About the song
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the song, “Take me Out to the Ball Game.”
Jack Norworth, a successful vaudeville entertainer and songwriter, wrote “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” in 1908 on some scrap paper on a train ride to Manhattan. Norworth provided those paper scrap lyrics to Albert Von Tilzer, who composed the music, which in turn was published by the York Music Company. Before the year was over, a hit song was born.
Jack Norworth spent 15 minutes writing this classic, which today is sung during the seventh inning stretch at nearly every ball park in the country.
Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer were posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. Over the course of a long and successful career, Norworth wrote or co-wrote thousands of other songs, including “Shine On, Harvest Moon” (1908). Albert Von Tilzer was equally prolific. He composed for Broadway and film and is remembered for his popular work “I’ll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time” (1920).
The original, handwritten lyrics of Norworth and Von Tilzer’s most celebrated collaboration now reside among the treasured collections of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.
The seventh inning stretch is a time-honored baseball custom in which the fans ritualistically stand and stretch before their team comes to bat in the seventh inning. This is done not only to relieve stiff muscles due to sitting the previous six innings, but perhaps also to bring luck to one’s team (an association with the number 7 and good luck, maybe?).
Unfortunately the exact origin of the custom is lost in the earliest days of the game. Baseball historian Dan Daniel is quoted by Zander Hollander (Baseball Lingo, 1967): “It probably originated as an expression of fatigue and tedium, which seems to explain why the stretch comes late in the game instead of at the halfway point.”
The earliest reference that has surfaced appears in an 1869 letter from Harry Wright of the Cincinnati Red Stockings to a friend: “The spectators all arise between halves of the seventh inning, extend their legs and arms and sometimes walk about. In so doing, they enjoy the relief afforded by relaxation from a long posture upon hard benches.”
The most popular story of its origin is also the most colorful. It was created in 1910 when President William Howard Taft, on a visit to Pittsburgh, went to a baseball game and stood up to stretch in the seventh inning. The crowd, thinking the chief executive was about to leave, stood up out of respect for the office.
The term itself can be traced back no further than 1920.
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