Editing Casey at the Bat (section)

==Inspiration==
Thayer said he chose the name "Casey" after a non-player of Irish ancestry he once knew named Daniel H. Casey;<ref>{{cite news|last1=O'Donnell|first1=Edward T.|title=The Origins of the Mighty Casey|url=http://inthepastlane.com/the-mighty-casey-turns-125/|access-date=August 6, 2020|work=In The Past Lane}}</ref><ref>[In fact Philadelphia ballplayer Daniel Casey had been stuck out while playing the New York Giants team in 1887. See https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gL9scSG3K_gC&dat=19350430&printsec=frontpage&hl=en Pittsburgh Post-Gazette April 30, 1935 page 18 "Mighty Casey was Pitcher But weak at Bat".]</ref> it is open to debate whom, if anyone, he modeled the character after. It has been reported that Thayer's best friend [[Samuel Winslow]], who played baseball at [[Harvard University|Harvard]], was the inspiration for Casey.<ref>{{cite news|title=Casey at the Bat|url=http://www.joslinhall.com/casey_at_the_bat.htm|access-date=June 3, 2017|publisher=Joslin Hall}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gardner|first1=Martin|title=Casey At The Bat|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/content/casey-bat|access-date=June 3, 2017|journal=American Heritage|date=October 1967 |volume=18|issue=6|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Canale|first1=Larry|title=Casey Might Have Struck Out, But Related Memorabilia Does Not|url=http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.com/mudville-still-no-joy/|access-date=June 3, 2017|work=Sports Collectors Digest|date=November 6, 2012}}</ref>

Another classmate of Thayer at Harvard—[[Edward Terry Sanford]]—also has been put forward as a possible model for Casey, in part on the ground that Thayer and Sanford were both members of a student group at Harvard (the OK Society) that played some baseball in the mid-1880s. Sanford would go on to a distinguished career in the law, culminating in his appointment to the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] in 1923.<ref>Ross E. Davies, ''Casey at the Bat and the Supreme Court'' (Green Bag Press 2024), chapter 6.</ref>

Another candidate is National League player [[King Kelly|Mike "King" Kelly]], who became famous when [[History of the Boston Braves|Boston]] paid [[History of the Chicago Cubs|Chicago]] a record $10,000 for him. He had a personality that fans liked to cheer or jeer. After the 1887 season, Kelly went on a playing tour to San Francisco. Thayer, who wrote "Casey" in 1888, covered the San Francisco leg for the ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]''.

Thayer, in a letter he wrote in 1905, mentions Kelly as showing "impudence" in claiming to have written the poem. The author of the 2004 definitive biography of Kelly—which included a close tracking of his vaudeville career—did not find Kelly claiming to have been the author.<ref name=rosenberg>{{cite book|last=Rosenberg|first=Howard W.|title= Cap Anson 2: The Theatrical and Kingly Mike Kelly: U.S. Team Sport's First Media Sensation and Baseball's Original Casey at the Bat|publisher=Tile Books|year=2004|isbn=0-9725574-1-5}}</ref>{{rp|9}}