GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) — What happens in between the 6th and 8th inning is an enduring baseball tradition. The roots of the 7th inning stretch were planted over a century ago. The most popular story credits President William Howard Taft with starting the tradition back in 1910.
As the story goes, President Taft needed to stretch his legs in the middle of a baseball game and the rest of the crowd stood in solidarity. However, media group Cut 4 tells a different story. Author Michael Clair wrote Brother Jasper of Manhattan College in the 1880s started the stretching tradition. Jasper noticed several student fans looking restless in the stands and told them to stretch and the students complied.
Clair cited an 1883 article in "The Sporting Life" to match the timeline. The publication wrote, "At the end of every few innings, some tired spectator, who has been wrestling with the hard side of a rough board seat, gets up and yells 'Stretch!' A second after, the entire crowd will be going through all the movements of a stretch."
Today the stretch only takes place once a game in the 7th inning, but different teams will play different songs and even the song 'Take me out to the ball game' can have variations.
If they decided to play another song. That's not right. I like it to be 'Casey at the bat' and 'Take me out to the ballgame.'
Lynn Jolley, long-time JUCO fan
The Chicago Cubs tradition is heavily tied to broadcaster Harry Caray who spent 16 years as announced for the Northside team. Caray would lead the crowd in 'Take me out to the ballgame' with his signature cadence.
At Suplizio Field, there is very little singing during the 7th inning. Instead, long-time JUCO fan and JUCO committee member Walt Bergman told WesternSlopeNow the Junior College World Series is the tradition. "When we say JUCO in Western Colorado it means baseball. World Series. You get outside of that and you say JUCO not many people know what it means."