In baseball in the United States and Canada, the seventh-inning stretch is a tradition that takes place between the halves of the seventh inning of a game – in the middle of the seventh inning. Fans generally stand up and stretch out their arms and legs and sometimes walk around. It is a popular time to get a late-game snack as well; many vendors end alcohol sales at this point. The stretch also serves as a short break for the players. If a game goes into a fifth extra inning, a similar "fourteenth-inning stretch" is celebrated (as well as a possible “twenty-first inning stretch” or “twenty-eighth inning stretch”). In softball games, amateur games scheduled for only seven innings, or in doubleheaders (except for Major League Baseball, both ends are nine innings each per regulation), a "fifth-inning stretch" may be substituted.
Read more about Seventh-inning Stretch: Origin, Current Practice, Team Traditions, Effects of September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks
Famous quotes containing the word stretch:
“Mark the babe
Not long accustomed to this breathing world;
One that hath barely learned to shape a smile,
Though yet irrational of soul, to grasp
With tiny fingerto let fall a tear;
And, as the heavy cloud of sleep dissolves,
To stretch his limbs, bemocking, as might seem,
The outward functions of intelligent man.”
—William Wordsworth (17701850)