Mudville Celebrates Arrival Of New Casey At The Bat Statue

On Sunday afternoon, local residents and members of the Mudville Base Ball Club gathered outside the home of Bob Blair, the “Mayor of Mudville” to celebrate the arrival of the new Casey At The Bat statue.

“The old Casey, he was deteriorating, (so) here’s the new Casey,” Blair exclaimed upon the statue's unveiling.

The statue was carved in honor of the famous baseball poem entitled, "Casey At The Bat," which was written by Ernest Thayer in 1888. The poem details the story of Mudville’s star player, "Mighty Casey," and his attempt to win the game with his team down by two runs with two out in the bottom of the ninth.

Casey wasn’t expected to get an at-bat in the inning, as he was slated to hit fifth in the inning. Yet Casey does get his chance at the plate, but didn’t swing at the first two pitches, which were called strikes.

On the third and final pitch, Casey … well, let's allow the poem to tell the end of the story.

"And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,/And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey’s blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;/The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;/ But there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out."

The ceremony for the new statue was preceded by a parade, led by a local fire truck and a van carrying the new statue. In the parade, members of the Mudville Base Ball Club, the Melrose Pondfeilders and the Saginaw (MI) Old Golds marched to Blair’s home.

Before the parade, the Mudville BBC finished their particpation in the Second Annual John Clarkson Classic at to the Pondfeilders, 2-0. On Saturday, Mudville had lost to the Essex Baseball Club on Boston's George's Island.

The games are played with the Massachusetts Rules of 1858.

“We started a block party here in 1981,” said Blair. “Somehow, I became the mayor and we’ve been doing block parties since then and obviously, Casey is a part of Mudville.”

The new statue was sculpted by Medfield resident Jesse Green, who has Holliston ties.

 “He’s a graduate of ,” Blair said. “He’s done a lot of sculpting in the area. (He was) the logical choice.”

Prior to the new statue, there had been a smaller one to go along with the plaque commemorating the poem. However, the time had come for the Mudville residents to get a new one.

“I was worried when it gets a little windy that the other one might have fallen over,” Blair said.

“The other statue was very conservative, and this one is a little more cartoon-ish, Disney-like, a little friendlier, especially for kids.”

While the statue is in the tight-knit area of Mudville, it attracts many people from all around the country, according to Blair.

 “People come all the time,” said Blair. “I see out-of-state license plates here, and people say ‘who is that?’ and I say ‘tourists, of course.’”

Gethin Coolbaugh is a reporter for Holliston Patch. He can be reached at 774-279-1995 or at gethin.coolbaugh@yahoo.com. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on Twitter.