Episode 102: Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Buy us some peanuts and cracker jacks! Today on Play Ball: Baseball at the Movies, we’re dancing our way through Gene Kelly’s 1949 musical, Take Me Out To The Ballgame. Leading off, we walk through the plot, listen to the film’s most memorable songs, and give our reviews. Then, on Inside Baseball (45:50), we discuss the feminist origins of baseball’s favorite anthem; We see if sabermetrics can tell us if Gene Kelly’s fictional 1908 world champion Wolves would have beaten the REAL 1908 world champion Cubs; Paul attempts to uncover the first double play in history, while Andrew identifies the top double play combos of all time; Rounding third, we unveil our top 5 women in baseball before we rate the movie (01:34:30) and preview next week’s episode.

 

Check out Edward Meeker’s original September 1908 recording of Take Me Out to the Ball Game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4-gsdLSSQ0

 

Read George Boziwick’s essay, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”: The Story of Katie Casey and our National Pastime, on the feminist origins of the famous anthem here: https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/take-me-out-to-the-ball-game-the-story-of-katie-casey-and-our-national-pastime-c8f76a0fc6ba

 

 

Play Ball: Baseball at the Movies is produced by Paul LeSchofs and Andrew Knopp. Our theme music, Slow Burn, was created by Kevin MacLeod. Our mascot was designed by Yehudi Mercado. Our intro uses clips from the following films from which we do not claim any ownership: Field of Dreams (Universal Pictures), The Natural (TriStar Pictures), Moneyball (Columbia Pictures), The Sandlot (20th Century Fox), Bull Durham (Orion Pictures), and A League of Their Own (Columbia Pictures). Follow us on Twitter @BaseballPodShow and Instragram @playballpodcast.