Despite other claimants, Thayer is recognized as the author of “Casey at the Bat.” The poem first appeared in the San Francisco Examiner on June 3, 1888, subtitled “A Ballad of the Republic.” Thayer had been writing a humor column for the Examiner, which was published by his Harvard classmate, William Randolph Hearst. But at the time the poem was published, Thayer had quit journalism and was in Worcester, Massachusetts to help run the family textile factory.
The actor DeWolf Hopper began reciting the poem to audience approval in 1892. When it first appeared in a volume of poetry in 1902, it was attributed to another writer.
