Seventh-inning stretch

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Seventh-inning stretch" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In baseball in the United States and Canada, the seventh-inning stretch (also known as the Lucky 7 in Japan and Korea) is a long-standing tradition that takes place between the halves of the seventh inning of a game. 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 or an alcoholic beverage, as alcohol sales often cease after the last out of the seventh inning. The stretch also serves as a short break for the players.

Most ballparks in professional baseball mark this point of the game by playing the crowd sing-along song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". If a game goes into a fifth extra inning, a similar "fourteenth-inning stretch" is celebrated (as well as, in theory, a possible "twenty-first-inning stretch", an "twenty-eighth-inning stretch", or even a "thirty-fifth-inning stretch"). In softball games, amateur baseball games scheduled for only seven innings (little league plays usually six), or in minor-league doubleheaders, a "fifth-inning stretch" may be substituted.

In Japan, the seventh-inning stretch consists of two parts: one after the end of the 6th inning, where the away team's fight song is played, as fans are encouraged to sing along. The second part is after the top of the 7th inning, when the home team's fight song is played. Every team has a unique fight song that is played regardless of where they play on a given day.