Good evening. This is Dead Legends. We’re here to report that Ken Griffey Jr.’s golf swing is almost just as beautiful as his baseball swing.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about baseball’s unofficial anthem and how it came to be.

Picture this: It’s a perfect summer day.

75 degrees, just the right amount of wind, and you’re at your favorite ballpark watching your squad play the greatest game on Earth…

The top of the 7th ends, and you know you’re about to have the best stretch of your life.

And of course, as always, a whole ballpark of fans will be singing along to the most iconic song in all of sports: Take Me Out To The Ballgame.

The song is almost as old as baseball itself, and it’s basically woven into the fabric of the game.

The strange part is, the guy who wrote it had never even been to a baseball game.

The tune was penned by a songwriter named Jack Norworth in 1908.

Norworth was inspired to write the song one day while riding the Subway.

He looked out the window and saw a billboard that said “Baseball Today-Polo Grounds.”

Right away, Jack’s imagination started running wild and he imagined the scene at the ballpark.

He imagined the blue skies, the peanuts and crackerjacks, the feeling of togetherness with thousands of fans.

But the main subject of the song is actually a fictional woman named Katie Casey who is obsessed with baseball.

At the time, baseball crowds didn’t have a lot of women singing in the crowd.

However, the idea of the “New Woman” was emerging, and Norworth wanted to embrace that narrative.

If you listen to the original track, it talks about how a guy wanted to take Katie out on a date, but she would only accept if he took her to a ballgame.

It only took Jack 15 minutes to write out the lyrics on a scrap of paper.

The song was an instant hit in 1908, but it didn’t actually start being sung at baseball games until 1934.

The tradition of singing it during the seventh-inning stretch was something that came along in 1946.

But it was really Harry Caray and White Sox owner, Bill Veeck, that took things to the next level.

On opening day of ’76 Caray was singing the song during the seventh inning, and Veeck noticed that fans were singing along.

A secret microphone was placed in the broadcast booth the next day and an epic tradition was born.

RUN IT BACK

One of our readers was kind enough to let us know that the links we posted yesterday for this section didn’t work - sorry about that!

So let’s try this again.

If you like any of these designs, here are the quick links:

• Dunder Mifflin

• MTV Checkered Logo

• Topps 1981

• Anchorman: Kind of a Big Deal

• Happy Gilmore: Just Tap It In

• ‘98 Devil Rays

• Ted Lasso Photo

• Topps Baseball: The Real One

• Comiskey Park: Baseball Palace of the World

Everything on the site is 20-40% this weekend - no code needed.

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Woody was a smart cookie (he went to Princeton) but his baseball career didn’t last long.

After only eight AB’s, his Major League career was over.

Mainly because he accepted a job to be Penn’s head football coach.

He went 39-18, but left after four seasons.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

If you like this story, check out some of our past favorites:

• The Ultimate Sacrifice: Baseball’s worst rule ever and the player that fought to abolish it.

• The Night in Havana: Meet the one-and-only Van Lingle Mungo

• The Hack: Cardinals employee goes rogue

That's it for today. Tomorrow we're back at it like a bad habit. See ya!

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