Show your baseball theme sheet music

[jrhatchjr]

I picked this up for fifty cents a couple of years back...I'm OK with it. Looks like my scanner is worth about that much, too.

[Baseballcrazy62]

Picked this up the other day. Thought it was pretty cool.

[oldjudge]

C

[BobC]

Here's one I haven't seen yet!

[GaryPassamonte]

1860 Live Oak Polka.

[stone193]

A buddy recommended I take the moment to post an update to a project of mine that's been ongoing for around 20 years.

It started with just wanting a copy to frame.

However, when I realized there was more than one face on the cover? I was off to the races which started with a google search which landed me on the door step of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Thought it would be interesting to start a thread at CU back in 2005 where I stated that I had picked up 2 of the 11 (known) variations of the original sheet music to Take Me Out to the Ball Game.

That information came from the HOF. That also started my relationship with the Dir. of Research - Tim Wiles. He had written a book in 2008 - commemorating the 100th anniversary of the song.

In summary, I had updated the hall’s data base by around 10 song sheets and supplied them with copies. As said, they originally had written that there were 11 variations. I later informed them I was up to 25 and counting!

I have written before about Jack Norworth and his contribution to the song. I may rewrite it at a later time.

But, now, for the update.

As most know, BST auctions is heavy on FB but I do check on their auctions.

I got an email and went to the web and got the surprise of a lifetime!

There it was - a copy of the sheet music with a singer (photo inset) I had never seen before. So I had to have it.



Osborn Searle is the 29th variation I have and it was pure luck that I happened to look at the auction since I wasn’t interested in buying anything at this time.

Here’s the complete list of all the variations I have.

It’s believed that the “first edition/printing” of the song was with Sadie Jansel on the cover.



Of interest - Norworth is featured on one of the covers along with his wife Nora Bayes - they were one of the most popular "couples" during the heyday of Vaudeville.

1. Richard & Grover
2. Ida Burt Laurence
3. Wheeler Earl
4. John Marion – Grace Lillian
5. Susie Fisher
6. Nevins & Arnold
7. J. Francis Dooley
8. Henry Fink (mouth closed)
9. Trixie Friganza (holding umbrella var.)
10. Trixie Friganza (portrait var.)
11. Sisters Meredith
12. Reynolds & Tucker
13. Sam Williams (standing)
14. Nora Bayes
15. Arna Deck
16. Jack Kloville
17. Sam Williams (sitting)
18. Marion Wilder
19. Harry Fox
20. Netta Vesta
21. Baby Florence Mascotte
22. Billy Sousa
23. Maude Gray
24. Jack Norworth
25. Sadie Jansell
26. Lulu Beeson
27. Henry Fink (showing teeth with smile)
28. Richard Burton
29. Osborn Searle

In addition, folklore would have it that Jack Norworth reported that he wrote the song after seeing an ad in the subway for a BB game?

I have seen old correspondence where he references attending a game which was prior to that date. Not sure if he was just a plain vaudevillian “huckster” or the copyright was actually later than the actual penning of the song? Perhaps more to that at a later date?

That’s about it for now. This hunt may rival my search for PEP Babe Ruth ring variations?

Another interesting "companion" to the sheet music is the earliest know recording of the song by Edward Meeker - an Edison product in 1908.









Note on the lid: Von Tilzer and "not" Norworth credit.

[tedzan]

HOFER....John Fogerty...."CENTERFIELD"

https://www.vevo.com/watch/john-foge...d/USUMV1000097


TED Z

T206 Reference
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