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**CLPRA scripts are working drafts for recording sessions. Recorded performances may vary due to editing for broadcast.**
Ernest Thayer (1863-1940) http://tinyurl.com/Thayer Click the below to hear radio segment.
Strikeout
From "Casey at the Bat," 1888. Read Online Reader: Kevin Hearle

"Earnest Thayer," illustrator, date unknown. Larger.
California's contributions to our national pastime began long before the Dodgers and Giants moved west, and even before Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams left the Pacific Coast League for glory on the East Coast. In 1888, the journalist Ernest Thayer penned the classic "Casey at the Bat" for The San Francisco Examiner.

With two out in the ninth inning and the tying run already on base, Mighty Casey of the Mudville Nine lets the first two pitches go by as called strikes. With a look, Casey quiets the hometown fans calling for the umpire's head. He turns to face the pitcher...
The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth
       are clenched with hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the
       plate;
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he
       lets it go.
And now the air is shattered by the force of
       Casey's blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is
       shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and
       somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and
       somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville--mighty Casey
       has struck out!
"Casey at the Bat" was so popular that an anonymous poet later wrote "Casey—Twenty Years After."

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