Take Me Out to the Ball Game: Popular Music and the National Pastime

Take Me Out to the Ball Game: Popular Music and the National Pastime

Whether it’s the national anthem played before every game, the music ballplayers select to accent their “walk up” to home plate, or the seventh inning stretch when fans sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” music is an integral part of the baseball experience.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game: Popular Music and the National Pastime takes visitors on a journey starting before the 20th century, when interest in baseball-themed music was fostered through the sales of sheet music. The exhibition then explains the rise of baseball songs becoming a part of a new era of American music in the early 1900s, and current day popular music being a central part of players preparing to take the field and excite the fans. All forms of music — pop, jazz, country, R&B, rock-and-roll — have embraced America’s baseball passion and are reflected throughout the exhibit. Edward Meeker and The Edison Orchestra’s original 1908 recording of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame® in 2019.

Exhibit includes:

  • Sheet music from the game’s early years, including “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”
  • Handwritten lyrics to baseball classics, such as James Taylor’s “Angels of Fenway”
  • Special edition Fender guitars, including the brand new Jackie Robinson Telecaster MLB sportscaster Harry Caray’s microphone
  • Limited edition posters, vinyl records, and photographs
  • Max Weinberg’s “E Street Kings” jacket (Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s softball team in the 1980s)

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