Singing “Take me out to the ballgame” is fun, entertaining and raises spirits. And is baseball! The current 7th inning stretch song depresses me. Will singing “Take me out to the ballgame” ever return? And how would it return? Who makes the decision to sing the current, lame tune?
Uh - I’ve never been to a game that they didn’t sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”. What are you talking about?
I don’t think they play it in Baltimore. Although it’s been many years, I recall “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” or some such nonsense by John Denver. Every other MLB stadium I’ve been to plays the traditional favorite of the OP. However, on Sunday games since 9/11/01, they also play “God Bless America” during the seventh inning stretch. It would be nice if they stopped doing that. But such a thing is much easier to start than stop.
Unfortunately all of my MLB is seen via TV. And in the 7th inning stretch “God bless America” is always sung. Happy to hear “Take me out to the ballgame” is still alive in the ballpark.
Every game I’ve been to we still sing, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” during the 7th Inning strech. And then we have to put up with “God Bless America”. I think they just don’t broadcast it any more in favor of the other song. :rolleyes:
I wish it were only Sunday games. It’s every single game I’ve watched on TV this season.
Turner Field in Atlanta
[ul]
[li]Sunday games - God Bless America, followed by Take Me Out To the Ballgame, followed by Thank God I’m a Counrty Boy. Yeah, it’s a long stretch.[/li][li]Every other night, same as above, just delete the God Bess America part[/li][/ul]
I don’t care for the GBA message but, I have to give credit to the dude they have sing it, Timothy Dalton from the Atlanta Opera. Youtube linky.
Is WGN among the channels available to you? When that station features Cubs home games, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is not only shown before the commercial break, but a different celebrity (retired player, member of a band that’s playing a Chicago gig, actor who’s been a Cubs fan since childhood, whatever) leads the crowd in the sing-along. That celebrity is then interviewed by the broadcast team (Len Kasper and Bob Brenly) during the bottom of the seventh.
Yeah, if you’re watching the games on TV it’s unlikely you’ll hear “take me out to the ballgame” because they do it during the break between innings (and you’re getting commercials). I’ve been to Cubs, White Sox, and Brewers games over the past year and all three parks continue to do it there. Milwaukee also does “Roll out the Barrel,” but hey, it’s Milwaukee.
Very Cool! Nice tradition. I love baseball! No WGN here. I am in Mexico and I have only basic cable that the landlord is kind enough to furnish.
I was at a game in Baltimore in early September, and I’m pretty sure they played TMOTTBG.
Last I heard, Dodger Stadium (lucky me!) and Yankee Stadium are the only places in the Majors where God Bless America is played at every game.
TMOTTBG is played at every home game at Busch Stadium. GBA is played on Sundays in addition, IIRC.
In San Diego only “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” is played. “God Bless America” is not.
At Yankee Stadium, they sing “God Bless America,” then “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” For some unfathomable reason, they also often play “Cotton-eyed Joe.”
The grounds crew continues to dance around to “YMCA” when they rake the basepaths in the fifth inning, a tradition that started back in 1996.
The music played as the crowd exits after a game is of course “New York, New York,” either the Frank Sinatra or the Liza Minelli version.
I thought the Yanks play “New York, New York” only if they win? Or is it Sinatra if they win and Liza if they lose? (Kind of a bad gesture if that’s true :))
I believe unlike most teams, the Yankees (still) play “Gold Bless America” at the 7th inning stretch of EVERY game. For a while after 9/11 it replaced TMOTTBG, now it precedes it when played. Most teams, including the crosstown Mets, observe the solemnity on Sundays and for special commemorative games. Reputation has it that the ushers chain closed the section stairways while it’s being played, too, and glower/browbeat people who get out of their seats.
Many teams have a special (pseudo-)traditional (i.e., going back to the 1990s) 7th inning stretch song that gets played after TMOTTBG, often while some other crowd pumping activity ensues (mascot posturing and whatnot). I don’t know why it’s “Cotton-Eye Joe” for the Yanks but it’s been like that since the mid 1990s. For the Mets, it’s “Lazy Mary” (in Sicilian), for the O’s and a few other teams it’s “Thank God I’m A Country Boy”.
For a while there was another mid-8th inning sing-along tradition, begun or popularized in Boston, of “Sweet Caroline” or some other variant. It’s still done in Boston but not elsewhere, I don’t think. I know the Mets, along with many other MLB teams, tried to implant an 8th inning sing-along tradition a few years back but it didn’t take root in Queens at least - not sure if it’s stuck in any other ballparks.
In fact, I now recall that back in 2008, the Mets ran a fan voting contest to determine the 8th inning sing-along song, since the piping of “Sweet Caroline” over the PA got booed so much (including by yours truly). The new song would begin being used as of the home opener that season, the last year played at Shea Stadium. That game also saw the Mets hosting the Philadelphia Phillies, whose amazing late September run to end 2007 coupled with the Mets’ incomprehensible implosion in the bullpen resulted in one of the great late season comebacks/choke jobs in baseball history (depending on which side of it you were on).
Why am I mentioning all of that? Because I was there for the game, and if you think it was painful enough that for the final Opening Day I attended at my team’s home ballpark for all my life I got to see the Mets lose to those selfsame Phillies as the very next home game I attended after seeing them lose the NL East to them on the very last game of 2007, I also got to witness the Mets get Rickrolledwhen the “fan voting” for the 8th inning song was “won” by Internet write-ins for “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. :smack: Which the team management decided wasn’t an illegitimate result, even after being forwarded Urban Dictionary links or whatever to what “Rickrolling” was. :smack: :smack:
(If someone could make a :smack: icon with a Mets cap getting knocked off of it, I’d make pretty good use of it)
I’ll let you in on a little secret, I’m pretty sure the only time the godless heathens in San Francisco play “God Bless America” at AT&T Park is during the playoffs. They don’t play it in Oakland, either.
I don’t recall “God Bless America” being played at any Rockies games I went to this year. Normally it’s TMOTTBG and “Hey, Baby!”
When I was living in Houston the 'stros played “Deep in the heart of Texas” but I don’t remember them playing TMOTTBG
I’ve heard that rumor, but it’s not true. The last game at the Stadium I went to this September, they played Frank’s version even though the Yanks lost. Win or lose, they’ve played one or the other version of “NY, NY” at every game I’ve attended since they started doing it (although I can’t recall exactly when that was). I don’t know if they alternate between Frank and Liza or there’s some other pattern.
I believe that’s probably true.
They don’t do that now, if they ever did.
I like Ozo’s version.
The song’s not that well known over in the UK, but the intro of this version is played every week on TALKSport’s ‘American roundup’ section.
I think we always get God Bless America and Take Me Out to the Ballgame at Nationals Park. Probably not surprising that we get patriotic schlock around these parts.
As for other songs, I can remember singing both Meet Me in St. Louis and clapping along with the Budweiser song at Busch Stadium back in the 80s. I don’t remember if they still do those things in the new stadium.
At Citizens Bank Park in Philly, “God Bless America” is performed in the regular season for Sunday games and the home opener. If the Phillies are home on Memorial Day, the 4th of July, Labor Day, or September 11 (this past season they were away for all of those except September 11), it is performed on those occasions as well. A recording of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” performed by their late stadium organist Paul Richardson follows.
The Phillies don’t have a specific song that they use for the 7th inning stretch after “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Instead, they’ll list three songs up on the scoreboard after the first inning and fans can vote via text message for which one they’d like to hear.