Ernest Thayer

We have reached the age, those of us to whom fortune has assigned a post in life's struggle, when, beaten and smashed and biffed by the lashings of the dragon's tail, we begin to appreciate that the old man was not such a damned fool after all. We saw our parents wrestling with that same dragon, and we thought, though we never spoke the thought aloud, 'Why don't he hit him on the head?' Alas, comrades, we know now. We have hit the dragon on the head and we have seen the dragon smile.

— Ernest Thayer

There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place,No stranger in the crowd could doubt, 't was Casey at the bat.

— Ernest Thayer

Oh! somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,But there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has "struck out."

— Ernest Thayer