Casey at the Bat

Casey at the Bat is a lost 1916 American silent sports drama film produced by Fine Arts Studios in Hollywood, directed by Lloyd Ingraham, and starring DeWolf Hopper with principal support from Marguerite Marsh, Frank Bennett, and Kate Toncray. The photoplay's scenario, written by William E. Wing, was based on Ernest Thayer's 1888 baseball poem of the same title. The Library of Congress includes the film among the National Film Preservation Board's list of "7,200 Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films" produced between 1912 and 1929. Plot As he is characterized in Ernest Thayer's poem, Casey (DeWolf Hopper) in this film was a "mighty" baseball player, the star and leading hitter of the town of Mudville's team. The motion picture's storyline, however, as described in 1916 reviews and news items, expanded considerably on Casey's personal life outside of baseball. He is portrayed living at the house of his sister (Kate Toncray) and brother-in-law (Bert Hadley) and working as a clerk and "errand boy" at Hicks' General Store in Mudville. Although he is a baseball hero in his community, Casey away from the playing field has few friends or admirers due to his clumsy, coarse behavior. Only a "half-witted" man (Frank Hughes) and the town's little children like the giant-sized athlete. Among the latter is Casey's six-year-old niece (Mae Giraci) to whom he is deeply devoted. Despite his unattractive appearance and social ineptness, Casey is infatuated with a pretty, young woman in town, Angevine Blodgett (Marguerite Marsh). She is the daughter of the local judge, is cordial to Casey whenever she sees him at the general store or elsewhere in public, but she is in love with Bert Collins (Frank Bennett), a handsome "college man" she hopes to marry. Collins is also a skillful pitcher on the baseball team of Mudville's bitter sports rival, Frogtown.