Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888

by Ernest L. Thayer, C. F. Payne (Illustrator)

Overview

The outlook wasn't brilliant
for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two
with but one inning more to play....
Since 1888 Casey at the Bat has been read and loved by baseball fans around the world. Now Mighty Casey has been brought to life by celebrated illustrator C. F. Payne, who captures the old-fashioned fun of an afternoon at the ballpark for a brand-new generation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689854941
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	03/01/2003
Edition description:	1ST
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

C. F. Payne has illustrated more than a dozen picture books, including the New York Times bestselling Mousetronaut by astronaut Mark Kelly; the Texas Bluebonnet winner Shoeless Joe & Black Betsy, written by Phil Bildner; and the New York Times bestsellers The Remarkable Farkle McBride and Micawber, both by John Lithgow. He teaches at the Columbus College of Art & Design, where he is the chair of the Illustration Department. Payne lives with his wife and children in Cincinnati, Ohio. Visit him online at CFPayne.com.

Editorial Reviews

Libraries may own several versions of this perennial favorite but try to make room for one more--this one's a hit. Interestingly, it was first published in Great Britain, and though the illustrator hails from Manchester, England, he seems to have a handle on "Casey at the Bat." His sunlit art spreads expansively across two pages and contains both the physicality of the game and the magic of the crowd experience. Whether it's Casey coming up to bat, or the fans yelling, "Kill the umpire!" or that final, deadly swing, Fitzgerald's art transcends the text to express the emotion of the moment. An entertaining reminder of the national pastime in a baseball spring sans heroes.

Ilene Cooper

Of the making of Caseys there seems no end, but here the illustrator of John Lithgow's Remarkable Farkle McBride (2000) delivers the chestnut with such broad, satirical panache that only the dourest of spoilsports will be able to resist going along for the ride. From the rows of bowler-topped gents in the stands to the well-groomed hairs in Casey's handlebar, every detail is both larger than life, and painted with crystal clarity. A mighty figure indeed, Casey strides to the plate with lordly assurance, casually takes two strikes, then gears up for the next pitch; Payne zeroes in on Casey's suddenly-choleric face-steam blasting from his ears-then pulls back to depict a whiff so prodigious that the batter's whole body disappears into a swirling blur. But a whiff it is, and a view of a deserted, muddy street captures the forlorn tone of the final verse. Finished off with a detailed account of the poem's history, this may not supercede Christopher Bing's Caldecott Honor-winning rendition (2000) for period flavor, but it does capture the episode's epic scale and perfectly tuned melodrama. (Picture book/poetry. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Debut children's book illustrator Bing hits a home run with this handsome faux-scrapbook treatment of Thayer's immortal poem. The original verses about baseball start Casey and the ill-fated Mudville nine appeared in the San Francisco Examiner on June 3, 1888, and Bing captures the spirit of the age with pen-and-ink illustrations that look like carefully preserved newspaper clippings, complete with slightly torn and yellowed edges. He uses cross-hatching and careful shading to create the pages of The Mudville Sunday Monitor, which keenly resembles the newspaper engravings of the day. Columns of type (in historically accurate printers' fonts, as and afterword points out) run beneath each illustration to bolster the conceit. Bing also scatters other "scrapbook" items throughout, from game tickets (a bargain at 20 cents) to old-fashioned baseball cards and stereopticon images many of them carefully keyed to the text. Full-color currency, for instance, accompanies "They thought if only Casey could but get a whack at that /We'd put up even money now with Casey at the bat," while an ad for Brown's Bronchial Troches appears with the couplet "Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell;/It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell." Endpapers reveal more items to delight baseball fans and history buffs, from Thayer's newspaper obituary to a fake bookplate wreathed with baseball motifs. Though Casey and the Mudville nine strike out in the end, this exceptionally clever picture book is definitely a winner. All ages.

From the Publisher