Famous Single Poems
the Bat,"—but that the Sunday was in the latter part of September, 1889. The inference is obvious.
James V. McClaverty, of Cambridge, Mass., who had kept for many years a complete file of Sporting Life, to which he made an index, and had also in his possession many copies of the Sporting Times, subsequently produced further evidence—if any were needed—to disprove D'Vys's claim.
D'Vys alleged that he sent his poem at once to O. P. Caylor, editor of the New York Sporting Times; but in Sporting Life for October 23, 1897, there is an obituary of Mr. Caylor, who died in that month and year, in which it is stated that he did not become editor of the Sporting Times until 1890.
D'Vys also asserted that his poem was published in the Sporting Times some time during August, 1886; but in an editorial in the issue of that paper for August 26, 1888, it is distinctly stated that its first issue was dated March 6, 1887.
Finally, in the issue for Sunday, July 29, 1888, the Sporting Times actually contains the last eight stanzas of "Casey at the Bat," in what is substantially the correct form, except that the name "Casey" is changed to "Kelly," "Mudville" to "Boston," and the poem is entitled, "Kelly at the Bat," with a sub-title which
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