Games

Three Tune Tuesday plays tunes. So why does this week open with a man reciting a poem? Because the best story about a game isn’t always sung. The theme this week is “Games,” and we follow the stakes as they drain right out of one — from everything riding on a single swing, through the swagger of a man who never loses, to an afternoon where the only thing on the line is a bag of peanuts. We open at the ballpark in Mudville, where DeWolf Hopper throws his whole booming theatrical might into Ernest Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat” (Victor, 1909) and the mighty Casey goes down swinging in front of the entire town. Then we take to the road with Kelly Harrell’s “Rovin’ Gambler” (Victor, 1925), the wandering player who wins every hand — and the girl besides. We land back in the bleachers with Harvey Hindermeyer’s “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1908), one of the very first recordings ever made of it, where the game costs nothing and everybody goes home happy. Hope, swagger, and Cracker Jack — three spins of the shellac. This week’s theme is inspired by our friends at https://ancient.games.