take me out to the ballgame

according to this month's smithsonian magazine, the well-known and much-beloved "take me out to the ballgame" has a "forgotten first verse." who knew? as best i can tell from the manuscript penned in 1908 (incidentally, the last year the cubbies won the world series), the lyrics read:

katie casey was baseball mad
had the fever and had it bad
just to root for the hometown crew
every sue -- katie blew
on a saturday, her young beau
called to see if she'd like to go
to see a show but miss kate said no,
i'll tell you what you can do ---

take me out to the ball game
take me out with the crowd
buy me some peanuts and crackerjack
i don't care if i never get back
let me root, root, root for the home team
if they don't win it's a shame,
for it's one, two, three strikes you're out
at the old ball game

i have no idea what that 4th line means, btw, but in the spirit of the game, ye olde blog shall be rechristened reverse the curse, and you know which curse(s) i'm talking about.