Baseball
Related: About this forumJust got back from trivia night at local Irish pub. This question - we had
zero idea on.
Who was president when they started the seventh inning stretch?
Hokie
(4,368 posts)I didn't cheat and Google. That is just my guess.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)started singing God Bless America - after 9-11
Hokie
(4,368 posts)Yes, the playing of God Bless America instead of Take Me Out to the Ball Game was a thing after 9/11.
Hokie
(4,368 posts)From the Wikipedia article:
A popular story for the origin of the seventh-inning stretch is that on April 14, 1910, on opening day, 6 ft 2 in (188 cm), 350-pound (160 kg), President William Howard Taft was sore from prolonged sitting at a game between the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics and stood up to stretch, causing the crowd to feel obligated to join their president in his gestures.[4] This story is set at a far later date than the others, however, so he may only have given the presidential seal of approval to a longstanding tradition; the story that his physical problems forced him to stand up contradict this, but he might have just been waiting for the proper accepted time to relieve his pain; either way, he gave national publicity to the practice.
As to the name, there appears to be no written record of the name "seventh-inning stretch" before 1920, which since at least the late 1870s was called the Lucky Seventh, indicating that the 7th inning was settled on for superstitious reasons.
and this:
Whether a stretch was observed nationwide is not known, but later in 1869 the Cincinnati Commercial reported on a game that was played on the West Coast between the Red Stockings and the Eagle Club of San Francisco: "One thing noticeable in this game was a ten minutes' intermission at the end of the sixth inning a dodge to advertise and have the crowd patronize the bar."
However, a letter written in 1869 by Harry Wright (18351895), manager of the Cincinnati Red Stockings documented something very similar to a seventh-inning stretch, making the following observation about the Cincinnati fans' ballpark behavior: "The spectators all arise between halves of the seventh inning, extend their legs and arms and sometimes walk about. In so doing they enjoy the relief afforded by relaxation from a long posture upon hard benches." Another tale holds that the stretch was invented by a manager stalling for time to warm up a relief pitcher.[3]
dflprincess
(29,417 posts)slumcamper
(1,787 posts)Hoover?
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)at the 8th wonder of world?
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