Five stories in "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" lore

1 The authors of "Baseball's Greatest Hit: The Story of Take Me Out to the Ball Game" do a fine job of debunking the mythology around the song. Jack Norworth may not have written it in a subway (he made the same claim about his other huge hit, "Harvest Moon," and never said it about "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" until after his partner, Albert von Tilzer, died). Norworth's claim of never having seen a baseball game when he wrote it is probably not true, either.

Co-author Strasberg, however, is willing to go along with the legend.

"You want me to also tell you Abner Doubleday didn't invent baseball?" he said. "No, no. There's something about folklore and legend; after a period of time, you stop challenging. It may be that common sense and fact will tell you something different, but why ruin a good story?"

2 The Mariners, with "Louie Louie," aren't the only major-league team to follow "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" with the same song each night.

Other standard follow-ups include "Brown Eyed Girl" for the Diamondbacks, "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" for the Braves and Orioles, "Deep in the Heart of Texas" for the Astros and Rangers, "Kansas City" for the Royals, "Beer Barrel Polka" for the Brewers and "Lazy Mary" (known to some as the Italian clapping song) for the Mets. The Cardinals, when they were owned by Anheuser-Busch, used to play "Here Comes the King" (the Budweiser theme song) during the stretch, but went to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" when Busch sold the Cards in 1996. They now play "Here Comes the King" during the middle of the eighth inning.

3 One unique version of the song is by hard-core rockers Dry Kill Logic out of Westchester, N.Y., whose musical style is described as "alternative new metal rapcore." Their blistering interpretation of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," called "Riot at the Bat Rack," and written in 2002 for the video game "MLB SlugFest," has to be the angriest and fiercest version ever recorded. Google it and wait for your ears to bleed.

4 And then there's the pigeon version. In 1950, noted psychologist B.F. Skinner, in the course of studying the role of reward and punishment while teaching at Harvard University, taught pigeons to peck out simple tunes like "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" on a rudimentary, seven-key piano.

5 All royalties from "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" were bequeathed by Norworth, after 1975, to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers to start the ASCAP foundation, which donates approximately $1 million each year to support music education and talent development. Among the beneficiaries: singer-songwriter John Mayer.

Larry Stone, The Seattle Times