I didn’t hear the NPR piece. Did she mention why they play “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” at Orioles games? Mystery to me…

Or how about the “Cotton-Eyed Joe” at Yankees games?!

This blog is becoming more and more unreadable. - It was once a clean and steady source of good information and comment. It’s now a bizarre collection of unrelated articles that do not reflect it’s purpose.

‘How did people start singing “Sweet Caroline??? at Red Sox games? ’ for goodness sakes.

What next, my favorite way of flossing.

Wait’ll you see us next week, David; half the entries will be set in Cyrillic and the other half will be about my collection of Hummel figurines. Talk about unreadable and bizarre!

(I like the flossing idea, though. *scratches note on index card*)

Shortly before Fenway Park began to play Sweet Caroline, Beautiful Girls was in the theaters. The story takes place in small town Massachusetts and prominently features Sweet Caroline as a singalong. You couldn’t escape the infectiousness in those bars with the song in its jukebox or house band’s repertoire. The timing had to have helped cement the song in RSN tradition.

Thanks for posting this, Merlin. I don’t get up early enough to listen to Morning Edition, so I would have otherwise missed the explanation to the mystery of “Sweet Caroline” at Fenway Park.

I will sleep better tonight because of you.

Merlin, I’m your greatest fan. Do whatever your heart tells you, post in Cyrillic, about flossing, whatever, I’ll still be coming to your blog. Boy, I need a life!

• Laura

Whenever I hear Sweet Caroline, I think of a version done by local (ie. Australian) musical comedy trio Tripod. I’ve put it online for a short period of time here: Tripod’s Sweet Caroline. Apologies to copyright holders.

That’s about as close to the context as I’m going to get, since I don’t follow baseball at all (not exactly a big sport here)