Seventh-inning stretch (17 September 1909, WASHINGTON POST)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   Gerald Cohen may forward this to the baseball people.
   One popular theory is that the baseball "seventh inning stretch" was born when President Taft first did it in 1910.
   From a long article ("TAFT SEES GIANTS WIN") in the WASHINGTON POST, 17 September 1909, pg. 1:

   In the seventh he stood up to stretch with the rest of the Chicago host, but the hunch was of no avail.


(About.com web site info on "seventh inning stretch attached below--ed.)

  About > News & Issues > Urban Legends and Folklore

  The Seventh-Inning Stretch
Origin (or not) of a baseball tradition
By David Emery

Popular memory has been unkind to William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States, who surely would have wished to be remembered for something nobler than his weight. At 300 pounds, he is the heaviest chief executive on record. It's the rare biographical sketch that doesn't mention the giant bathtub — spacious enough to accomodate four average-sized men — specially built for him in the White House.

Baseball history has accorded him somewhat more dignity, for it was Taft who launched the tradition of the presidential first pitch on the opening day of the season. The occasion was a game between the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics on April 14, 1910 at Griffith Stadium. Apparently on the spur of the moment, umpire Billy Evans handed Taft the ball after the rival managers had been introduced and asked him to throw it over home plate. The president did so with delight. Nearly every chief executive since Taft (the sole exception being Jimmy Carter) has opened at least one baseball season during their tenure by tossing out the first ball.

Legend has it, Taft inspired another baseball tradition that same day quite by accident. As the game between the Senators and the Athletics wore on, the rotund, six-foot-two president reportedly grew more and more uncomfortable in his small wooden chair. By the middle of the seventh inning he could bear it no longer and stood up to relieve his discomfort — whereupon everyone else in the stadium, thinking the president was about to leave, rose to show their respect. A few minutes later Taft nonchalantly returned to his seat, the rest of the crowd sat down, and the "seventh-inning stretch" was born.

A charming tale, but folklorists have a saying: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't.

Consider the story of Brother Jasper of Mary, F.S.C., the man credited with bringing baseball to Manhattan College in the late 1800s. Being the Prefect of Discipline as well as the coach of the team, it fell to Brother Jasper to supervise the student fans at every home game. On one particularly hot and muggy day in 1882, during the seventh inning against a semi-pro team called the Metropolitans, the Prefect noticed his charges becoming restless. To break the tension, he called a time-out in the game and instructed everyone in the bleachers to stand up and unwind. It worked so well he began calling for a seventh-inning time-out at every game. The Manhattan College custom spread to the major leagues after the New York Giants were charmed by it at an exhibition game, and the rest is history.

Or not, as the case may be. As it turns out, baseball historians have located a manuscript dated 1869 — 13 years earlier than Brother Jasper's inspired time-out — documenting what can only be described as a seventh-inning stretch. It's a letter written by Harry Wright of the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first pro baseball team. In it, he makes the following observation about the fans' ballpark behavior: "The spectators all arise between halves of the seventh inning, extend their legs and arms and sometimes walk about. In so doing they enjoy the relief afforded by relaxation from a long posture upon hard benches."

Truth be known, we have no idea where and when the custom of the seventh-inning stretch began. Based on the evidence that exists, it's doubtful the phenomenon originated with William Howard Taft, or even Brother Jasper. We know it's at least as old as 1869, that it cropped up in various places afterward and that it eventually became a solid tradition. No record of the phrase "seventh-inning stretch" exists before 1920, by which time the practice was already at least 50 years old.

Where history cannot tell the whole story, folklore arises to fill in the gaps.


Sources:

"Baseball History." Official Site of Major League Baseball. (24 Oct. 2000)
Dickson, Paul. The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary. New York: Harvest Books, 1999.
Schlossberg, Dan. The New Baseball Catalog. New York: Jonathan David, 1998.
"What's a Jasper?" Manhattan College. (25 Oct. 2000)
"William Howard Taft." White House History. (24 Oct. 2000)