by Daryl Bagley

Created on: May 15, 2009

This is a summary of the poem "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer in the form of a sports article. I hope it explains a lot and helps clarify the poem for any readers that don't understand it.

Did you hear? Casey, the best player on the Mudville Nine, has recently done the unimaginable. It all started when the Mudville Nine were playing a game against the visitors. In the last inning, the Mudville Nine were losing two to four. The audience knew that the only one who could win the game for them was Casey. Unfortunately, Casey had four people who were before him and the audience realized that there was a small chance of Casey getting to bat. The first two people, Barrow and Cooney, struck-out. That left the Mudville Nine with two outs, losing by two points, and two more people before Casey. The two people in front of Casey weren't very good, but the Flynn got a single, and Jimmy Blake got a double and tore of the cover of the ball. Finally, Casey was at bat and everyone was excited, they had total confidence that Casey's amazing ability to hit the ball and get home runs would make their team win the game. The first ball was thrown and Casey didn't swing, claiming that it "wasn't his style." The crowd went wild with anger as Elijah Beuzille, the Umpire, called strike. The crowd wanted to kill the umpire and one person called out "Kill him! Kill the umpire!" But Casey stopped the anger by raising his hand and asking that the game go on. The game went on and another ball was thrown, but still Casey ignored it. Then Elijah called "strike two," and the crowd started calling out "fraud," but they stopped after a scornful glance from Casey. When they saw Casey's muscles strain, they were sure that Casey wouldn't let the ball go by again. They saw the pitcher through the ball and they saw Casey use his amazing power to shatter the air. Somewhere out there people are happy, but here in Mudville, we are sad due to the fact that the mighty Casey has struck out. ):

Here are somethings that you need to know:

The Umpire has no name (but I have a friend named Elijah Beuzille)
All the other names are correct
Mudville's team name wasn't the Mudville Nine until this poem became popular
I made the article above but I did not write the poem (it was written by Ernest Lawrence Thayer)
Mudville is a real place
Casey at the Bat has influenced many different things, including books, games, and movies.

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