SI Vault podcast: Listen to the real (wink) story of Casey at the Bat

On the latest SI Vault podcast, Ted Keith reads Frank Deford's ingenious version of the "real" story surrounding the classic baseball poem Casey at the Bat.

For over 125 years, Casey at the Bat has been one of the most popular poems in America. But if all you know is that the outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day, or even that Mighty Casey had struck out, then you don't know the true (wink, wink) story. When Ernest L. Thayer's poem turned 100, Sports Illustrated senior writer Frank Deford decided there had to be more to the story than just one inning of a fateful game. And so Deford crafted an entire tale of the days leading up to, and far beyond, the events of June 2, 1888. The result was "Huge Commotion in Mudville," which ran in the July 18, 1988 issue of SI, and is read here by SI Vault podcast host Ted Keith.

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