17. Take Me Out To The Ballgame – Harry Caray’s last time at Wrigley

2008 is the 100th anniversary of Jack Norworth’s release of “Take Me Out to a Ballgame.” Norworth was on a subway train bound for a New York Giants game when he saw a sign that read, “Baseball Today – Polo Grounds” and was inspired to write the now classic song. Harry Caray is credited with first singing the song during a professional baseball game, and he helped to popularize the practice of singing it during the 7th inning stretch, a practice which is commonplace at all baseball parks today. The story goes that on Opening Day in 1976, while Caray was a member of the Chicago White Sox radio broadcast team, Bill Veeck noticed that some of the fans sitting near Harry were singing along with him. The following day a secret microphone was placed near Caray in the broadcast booth to allow for all the fans to hear him. As Veeck explained to Caray, “Harry, anybody in the ballpark hearing you sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ knows that he can sing as well as you can.” And so began a new baseball tradition. This track features the audio recording of Harry Caray’s final time singing “Take Me Out to a Ballgame” at Wrigley Field on September 21, 1997. Harry Caray entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.

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