Linda S. wrote:
B. Brenly said the 7th inn. stretch was started when President W. Taft stood up.
I guess some fan of the Cub will believe anything they hear from the corporate teet. From wikipedia:
There are many apocryphal stories about the origins of the seventh-inning stretch. One popular yarn claims that it began on account of President William Howard Taft. He had been in attendance at a Harrisburg Senators versus Philadelphia Phillies game on April 20, 1891 and had been uncomfortable in his chair; by the middle of the seventh, he could no longer take it, and stood up. The crowd mistook his action, and believed he had decided to leave, and out of respect, stood up as well. However, minutes later, after stretching out his legs, Taft sat back down as did the crowd. This tale is almost definitely false—evidence exists of the practice as early as 1869. It is also false because President Taft was not president until 1909. However, the seventh-inning stretch was not a formal practice in professional baseball games until the 1920s.