Take me out to the ball game

No marks for originality here but don’t tell me the song hasn’t been going through your head… take me out to the ball game.

A lot has been going on in the world in the last seven days.

But the one thing everyone has been talking about is the Coldplay Couple.

Caught on a kisscam in Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Not that the kisscam originated to expose amorous astronaut company CEOs but sneaky Pete’s and Petras will be extra-wary now.

Kisscam has become part and parcel of the American stadium experience, now extended to music concerts.

And, of course, the first thing humiliated Mrs Astro will have said to Bad Boy Businessman will be ‘I will fix you’.

When it was my first rodeo

The truth is that none of us are safe from the prying lens so just be sure you’ve nothing to hide.

As I discovered at the Coors Field in Denver… and I was indoors at the time.

Practising my rodeo skills on the electronic bull.

Only for it to be shot up on the big screen.

Now entertainment in the Oo Es of Eh has always been even-handed with the fan as valued as the athlete.

And even if you’re not clued up on the intricacies.

And it took two quarters for The Scary One to work out that in American Football you pass the ball forward.

Fly balls and podgy presidents

There is always plenty going on in the crowd.

Whether it’s having your hot dog thrown along the row of seats to you.

Trying to catch a fly ball and fans will push their grandparents outta the way for these lucrative artefacts.

While the Seventh Innings Stretch transcends sport.

Dating as far back as the 1860s with Brother Jasper, who brought baseball to Manhattan University.

And started the practice when he called for a break in the game to catch breath.

Where it really takes off is in 1910 when the portly President Howard Taft took time out to stand and stretch his legs.

During a Washington Senators and Philadelphia Athletics match.

And the crowd followed suit in respect.

A date at the game

The Seventh Innings Stretch now being a thing all that was needed was a song to sing along with.

And so the legend of the baseball anthem Take Me Out To The Ball Game written a few years earlier by Jack Norworth.

Who the story goes was riding a subway in New York.

When he saw a sign that read Baseball Today –Polo Grounds.

In Polworth’s room, Katie’s (and later Nelly’s) fella calls to ask her out to see a show.

To which she agrees but only if he takes her out to the baseball game.

The tradition, of course, has been built upon over the years.

Harry’s game

And if there is one figure most associated with it in modern days it is Chicago sportscaster Harry Caray.

Who any visitor to Wrigley Park, the second oldest ballpark in the country will recognise from his statue.

And who we all honoured in the Windy City at the American Travel Fair, IPW, last month.

Though on this occasion my antics weren’t captured on the big screen.

Not that I ever would but certainly not if I ever want these, or future hosts, to take me out to the ball game.