Sport: Mudville Man

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.

"Who is Casey?" wasp-waisted little wives whispered into their husbands' sideburns as young De Wolf Hopper recited the last stanza of a poem called Casey at the Bat in Wallack's Theatre on Broadway one summer night in 1888. It was a gala baseball night in honor of the visiting Chicago White Stockings and the...