‘Casey at the Bat’ stands again in Mudville
Holliston’s first celebration of our country’s 250th anniversary began with an old-fashioned baseball game at Goodwill Park followed by the unveiling of the third “Casey at the Bat” statue at 57 School St., created by Evergreen Carvings. Photos by Judith Dorato O’Gara
The Mudville Base Ball Club won its scrappy old tyme match
Against The Lisbon Tunnelmen. At Goodwill Park, they’d catch
The win – and with a fine steed and an escort from the Blue,
An engine from the Red, and ice cream truck, White, too
The players marched in glory, in the blazing heat that day,
With Queen, the Mayor, Rep and children trailing all the way
To School Street where the wood icon had fallen once again,
A tribute to the Thayer rhyme, near stone arch he had been,
He’d been the second one to stand up right in Bobby’s lot,
But rain and wind and snow and bugs had driven him to rot.
‘Neath blue tarp stood an Evergreen Carving mighty tall
A mystery to those who stood around it, short and tall,
The pomp, the praise, the poem read by town historian,
A song that won a prize, a hat, ‘Make Mudville Great Again,’
With bated breath, the band that gathered giggled with good cheer,
The players, every one of ‘em, stepped forth up from the rear,
With 1-2-3 they tore the cover off before the crowd,
And Casey at the Bat stood once again there, tall and proud.
~Judith Dorato O’Gara
