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May 6, 2008 10:47 pm US/Pacific
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Good Question: Seventh Inning Stretch
WEST SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
With River Cats' season in full swing talks turned to baseball in the newsroom. Apparently everybody has a good question about baseball! Like how did the seventh inning stretch start?
Lucky the ballpark is just across the street. I was hoping some players might have the answer.
The answers I found ranged from clueless.
"I don't know; I have no idea," said a River Cats player.
"I have no idea. They have halftime in ever other sport so they probably needed something in baseball to give the fans some time to get up and walk around," said a River Cats player.
To downright clever.
"It was an economic stimulus for the ballparks in order to give fans more of an excuse to go buy concessions it was created in the '30's probably," said another player.
Think he said he did a paper on it in college
I swear he said he did a college paper on that. But the only answer I could confirm matched this one.
"The tradition started with a former U.S. president Coolidge, Harding. I can't remember which one -- stood up during the seventh inning at a baseball game and out of respect -- the rest of the crowd did hence the 7th inning stretch was inaugurated," said Alan Ledford, River Cats' President, GM & COO.
That was in 1910 but another reference dates all the way back to 1869 an observation of what fans did at a Cincinnati Red Stockings game. Whatever the origin, it stuck!
The economic stimulus answer makes a lot of sense.
Now don't think that's the only question I asked them. I've got a double-header. I get the inside scoop from team manager about how he comes up with signals and I learn about all kinds of crazy pitches next week.
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