The 7th Inning Stretch (Part 4)

A third theory was dug up by baseball historians. It shows a manuscript dated in 1869, a full thirteen years before the “Perfect” Brother Jasper’s timeout. It seems to be documenting what can only be described as a seventh inning stretch. The letter was penned by a member of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, whose name was Harry Wright.

 

Harry describes in his letter that the spectators would all get up off the hard seats and move around and stretch in the middle of the seventh inning. Now, call me slow but you don’t have to hit me over the head with a baseball bat to think that it sounds like they were all taking a seventh inning stretch! So, when did singing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” get added to the fray? Well, there’s another theory…   

 

Related posts:

1. The 7th Inning Stretch (Part 5)
2. The 7th Inning Stretch (Part 2)
3. The 7th Inning Stretch (Part 3)
4. The 7th Inning Stretch (Part 1)