The Vikings’ nail-biting Jan. 14 win against the New Orleans Saints at the U.S. Bank Stadium was the muse for this poem, written by Don Stryker, of St. Anthony Park. The poem is based on the 1888 baseball poem “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer.
Case-K at the Bank
By Don Stryker
The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the ’Sota club that day
The Saints were up by one with less than 20 ticks to play
Then when J-Wright slipped and fell and Rankins got in Case’s face
A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the place.
A straggling few got up to go in deep despair.
The rest Clung to the hope that springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, “If only Paddy Shurmer could come up with a call
We’d put up even money now, when Case-K throws the ball.”
Then from sixty thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yawl;
It rumbled ’cross the frozen lakes, it rattled to St. Paul;
It pounded on the prairie, people started dancing jigs,
For Case-K, mighty Case-K, had thrown the ball to Diggs.
There was ease in Case’s manner as he stepped into his throw;
There was pride in Case’s bearing as he absorbed a blow.
And when, responding to the cheers, Diggs nimbly left his feet,
No Norseman in the crowd could doubt the Saints just might get beat.
The smile is gone from Diggs’ lip, he seeks a playoff win,
But safety Williams nears, and he is set to do him in;
And now Diggs surely sees the ball, it’s seventh-heaven lit,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Williams’ hit.
Somewhere Drew Pearson’s ghost is pushing off on Nathan Wright,
And somewhere Anderson and Walsh miss every kick wide right,
And somewhere Saints and Giants think of cruel past pain and cackle,
But there is no curse in Mill-Town, Marcus Williams missed the tackle.
