Author’s Note: This is a letter to Casey, the main character in the narrative poem “Casey at the Bat,” by Earnest Thayer, from one of his fans. The letter is written as a reaction to how he (and his inflamed ego) caused the team to lose the game, and it details the consequences that came from his actions during the game.
Hi Casey,
This is Jackie, one of your biggest fans—or, should I say, one of your ex-biggest fans! I was really upset last week at the big game and the way you didn’t even try to hit the first two balls. I know you were just trying to show off, but it caused a lot of us to question how your ego effects the way you play. More importantly, your actions led to our season ending way too soon. I am writing this letter to help you understand how your attitude and actions at the game affected everyone in town so that you can come back next year with the “team player” attitude and better batting average that we all know you have.
First of all, you had two chances that you threw away because you were too busy trying to show off your supposed skills! I mean, really Casey, none of us would have been less impressed if you had gotten a home run on the first ball! We know it was because of your ego and not the pitches, too, because you even acted like those first two balls weren’t “your style”—and they were clearly perfect chances for you to knock them out of the park! We all know that you are a great batter, but there was no reason for you to show off and not even try at those first pitches. Your attitude at the plate really made every one of your fans nervous, and, in the end, disappointed.
As it turned out, you shouldn’t have tried to impress anyone, because it ended up in disappointing all of your fans. We were really close to winning the game, and, because you let the first two balls go, you only had one chance to hit it out of the park! It is still hard for any of us to believe that you can go out there again as our last saving grace after you pulled a stunt like that. If you had tried to hit the other balls, we wouldn’t be so disappointed, because at least we would know that you tried your best.
The biggest consequence of what you did (or didn’t do!) at the game was that, since we lost, we are now done for the season. Now what are the rest of your teammates going to do for the rest of the season? I’m sure some of them might be happy because they have more time with families and doing commercials or other media gigs, but I bet some are really sad they can’t play any more games, let alone win the World Series! Also, did you think at all about what are we, your fans, going to do for the rest of baseball season? I mean, now all we have left in town to watch is our terrible college football team?!
In the end, I really hope you can see that it’s always best to try with everything you’ve got, and not worry so much about impressing us with doing something daring and risky. I know you still have a lot of fans, and, as disappointed as I must sound, I also still believe in you. We are all still looking forward to cheering for you and the team next season, as long as you try to learn from what happened last week. Next time, though, can you please just swing at all of the good pitches that come your way?
Sincerely,
Jackie
