WASHINGTON -- With the All Star game behind us, The Why is taking on a baseball-themed question: "Why is there a 7th Inning Stretch in the first place?
Presidential Theory:
The most popular theory out there centers around former President William Howard Taft. He was a chief justice and the 27th president, but unfortunately for him, he's often most-remembered for his size. Taft weighed well-over 300 pounds.
Side Story: Over the years, the rumor has spread that Taft even got stuck in the White House bathtub, due to his size. This actually was just a rumor though. In fact, Taft had a massive bathtub made for him and installed in the White House, to avoid just that.
Let's get back to baseball! Taft loved the sport, and on April 14, 1910, he attended the Washington Senators' Opening Day. It was at that game, where he started another tradition: The Presidential First Pitch.
According to the legend, Taft then sat down to watch the game. But as the hours progressed, he started to get uncomfortable. After all, he was in these tight, wooden seats, and he was a very large man. During the seventh inning, he was rumored to have stood up to stretch his legs. Everyone else in the crowd, wanting to be respectful, stood up as well.
This theory sounds great. But it turns out, the 7th Inning Stretch existed before this.
Earlier References:
Years before Taft attended that game, in 1880, a man named Brother Jasper Brennan brought the little-known game of baseball to Manhattan College. He too is credited as a creator of the 7th Inning Stretch concept.
The team he coached, would eventually take his name, as the "Jaspers."
Historical records told the story of a restless crowd on a muggy, June day. The school had a policy, where the students in the stands were told not to move from their seats until the game was over. This caused the college students to get a bit rowdy.
That's when Jasper had an idea. He asked the crowd to stand up and stretch during the 7th inning, to get some relief from the wooden seats. The action then became a tradition at Manhattan College, and soon spread to other teams in the area.
Even Earlier References:
Our search for the origins of the 7th Inning Stretch is not over yet. Just 35 years ago, The Cincinnati Magazine dug up a letter, written by Harry Wright, one of the founding fathers of professional baseball.
In that letter, Wright wrote of the crowd rising up to stretch in the seventh inning to get some relief. This is the first historical reference to the 7th Inning Stretch, dating back to 1869. That was 13 years before the jasper story, and 41 years before the Taft story.
Do you have a why question you want answered? Contact reporter Evan Koslof, at @ekoslof on Twitter, at "Evan Koslof Reporting" on Facebook, or by email at ekoslof@wusa9.com
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