The Mighty Casey

The Mighty Casey

This past Sunday my sermon was titled "Faith (part 2)" and for folks who weren't there, yes the previous Sunday's sermon was called "Faith (part 1)". It is the first time I've done anything as gimmicky as split a sermon in half and told people if they wanted to know how it ended then they needed to come back the following Sunday!

I started off "Faith (part 1)" by reading Ernest Lawrence Thayer's classic poem "Casey at the Bat" in its entirety. If you don’t know the story of “Casey at the Bat” or if you are just feeling sentimental then you can find Disney’s 1946 cartoon version on YouTube by clicking here.

The poem has surprising things to tell us about faith and gave me the chance to ask if anyone had ever felt like Casey. Or like Flynn stranded at third. Or Jimmy Blake stuck on second. Or the Mudville Nine unexpectedly defeated on the last day of the season.

In "Faith (part 2)" I ended the sermon by saying that our scriptures remind us time and time again that the story doesn't end where we think it might. Resurrection is possible. Grace is always reaching out to us. New life is just around the corner. And then I closed the sermon by reading "Casey at the Bat (reprise)".

Plenty of folks have asked me for a copy of the poem. And just as many people want to know where it came from. The most common guesses are that Ernest Lawrence Thayer (the author of the original poem) wrote it, or that I did. Neither one is right.

The truth is a bit zanier, really.

It was written several years ago to be a part of a national advertising campaign called "The Strolling Man." The series of ads would show a cartoon mascot strolling leisurely through revisioned endings of classic stories.

“Casey at the Bat (reprise)” ran as a full-page ad in ESPN: The Magazine (which I subscribe to and read each edition cover to cover). I clipped out the strolling man ad and saved it in my “future sermon ideas” file.

The advertising campaign didn’t take off, thought, and was eventually canceled. The company has scrubbed all references to it and you can't find it anywhere on the web.

That company? Johnnie Walker Scotch Whiskey! 

I’ve been all to happy re-purpose their forgotten ad campaign and use “Casey at the Bat (reprise)” to talk about faith. Here is the poem:

The last we heard of Casey, he’d made 5,000 faces pout,
For with the season on the line The Mighty Casey had struck out.
The manager was furious, he sent Casey to the farm,
There ‘The Mighty Casey’ could do the club no harm.

Casey sank into depression – he could hardly play the game,
The fans and players taunted him, when the announcer called his name.
Casey’s batting average plummeted, soon his eyes had lost their spark,
No one could remember, last time he’d hit one out of the park.

Then one day when all looked bleak, and Casey’s hope began to fade,
He heard a voice inside him, reminding Casey why he played.
He dug his heels in deeper, and worked his body nearly broke.
And then one day it happened: The Mighty Casey found his stroke.

Meanwhile back in Mudville, headlines screamed of a pennant race,
But the home team lacked a Slugger, Casey hadn’t been replaced.
‘Twas on the eve of the final game, when Casey got the call,
The desperate boss of The Mudville Nine, asking Casey to play ball.

Casey strode to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning,
The scoreboard said four to two, and the home team wasn’t winning.
Jimmy stood safe at second, while Flynn was hugging third,
When there rose a rumble from the stands, the second loudest ever heard.

And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
Oh, how the boos are shattered, by the force of Casey’s blow.
In the favored land of Mudville, women dance and twirl about
For there is joy again in Mudville, Mighty Casey hit it out.

Yours in the Journey, Rev. Brian