Chicago Shady Dealer

Dealer Music Review: “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”

What happens when a girl loves America’s pastime so much she insists that all of her dates be at sporting events? Lyricist Jack Norwood and composer Albert Von Tisler give us the answer in their acclaimed single “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (now available on iTunes for $0.99). The song is a catchy and upbeat earworm that is sure to make its way into your head, if not onto the Billboard charts, pretty soon. Granted, the single is pretty short — barely two minutes long — but that’s no reason it can’t compete for airtime with the likes of Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish.

Norwood and Von Tisler, already celebrated musicians, reach a new high in “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” which, at its core, is a love song. Whether its protagonist, Katie Casey, who “was baseball mad/Had the fever and had it bad,” is also in love with her boyfriend or solely with the idea of going to baseball games is left ambiguous. Musical storytelling of this sort is often hard to achieve, but “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” knocks it out of the park, so to speak, expertly balancing the song’s infectious organ-backed hook with its charmingly carefree desire to “root, root, root for the home team.” 

Grade: A-

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Editor-in-Chief, 2022-23