CASEY AT THE BAT

New York: John H. Eggers, 1911., 1911. First edition. 5-1/4" x 3-1/4" in bright colorful pictorial wrapper showing a comedic view of Casey at homeplate, holding a bat that's been pounded on the plate, dressed in yellow with the crowd cheering him on. Illustrations by "Cromwell" or "Crom Jr." 14pp. to include wrappers. Advertisement on rear wrapper "Cowan's Queen's Dessert Chocolate - The Best For Athletes." "Casey At The Bat is a baseball poem written in 1888 by Ernest Thayer. First published in The San Francisco Examiner (then called the The Daily Examiner) on June 3, 1888, it was later popularized by DeWolf Hopper in many vaudeville performances. The poem was originally published anonymously (under the pen name "Phin", based on Thayer's college nickname, "Phinney"). Synopsis of poem: "A baseball team from the fictional town of "Mudville" is losing by two runs in its last inning. Both the team and its fans believe they can win if Mighty Casey, Mudville's star player, gets up to bat. However, Casey is scheduled to be the fifth batter of the inning, and the first two batters (Cooney and Barrows) fail to get on base. The next two batters (Flynn and Jimmy Blake) are perceived to be weak hitters with little chance of reaching base to allow Casey a chance to bat. Surprisingly, Flynn hits a single, and Blake follows with a double that allows Flynn to reach third base. Both runners are now in scoring position and Casey represents the potential winning run. Casey is so sure of his abilities that he does not swing at the first two pitches, both called strikes. On the last pitch, the overconfident Casey strikes out swinging, ending the game and sending the crowd home unhappy." It has become one of the best-known poems in American literature. 1/4" closed tear to front fore-edge else a very good copy of American literature.