GRAMMY Museum presents Take Me Out to the Ball Game: Popular Music and the National Pastime
Whether it’s the national anthem played before every game, the music ballplayers select to accent their “walk up” to home plate, or the seventh inning stretch when fans sing “Take Me Out To The Ball Game,” music is an integral part of the baseball experience. To celebrate the soundtrack of our national pastime, the GRAMMY Museum proudly presents Take Me Out To The Ball Game: Popular Music And The National Pastime. The exhibit will open on March 14th, when Bob Santelli, Founding Executive Director of the GRAMMY Museum and the exhibit’s curator, will discuss the history of music in baseball with Barry Zito at the Museum’s Clive Davis Theater as part of the Museum’s Public Programs. The exhibit will run through baseball season until fall 2019.
Take Me Out To The Ball Game: Popular Music And The National Pastime will offer insight and historical reference for the history of music in baseball. The exhibit takes you on a journey starting before the 20th century when interest in baseball-themed music was fostered through the sales of sheet music, then explains the rise of baseball songs becoming a part of a new era of American music in the early 1900’s, to current day popular music being a central part of players preparing to take the field and excite the fans. All forms of music, from pop and jazz, to country, R&B, and rock and roll embraced America’s baseball passion and are reflected throughout the exhibit.
Edward Meeker and The Edison Orchestra’s original 1908 recording of “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame this year.
“Baseball and popular music have been practically inseparable for the past century and a half,” states Santelli. “Hundreds of songs have been written about the national pastime. And today, with ballplayers personally selecting walk-up-to-the-batter’s-box-music and with retired players like Barry Zito and Bernie Williams actually launching music careers, the baseball-music connection is stronger than ever.”
Exhibit highlights include: Sheet music from the game’s early years, including “Take Me Out To The Ball Game;” handwritten lyrics to baseball classics, such as James Taylor’s “Angels Of Fenway;” special edition Fender guitars, including the brand new Jackie Robinson Telecaster; MLB sportscaster Harry Caray’s microphone; and limited edition posters, vinyl records, and photographs.
