Fans stand and sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch

In baseball, the seventh-inning stretch takes place in the middle of the seventh inning. Fans generally stand up and stretch out their legs and other muscles and sometimes walk around; it is a popular time to get a late-inning snack as well. 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.

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. Supposedly, he had been in attendance at a Washington Senators-Philadelphia Athletics game on April 14, 1910 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, when unruly students were called to stand up and stretch to help settle them down. However, the seventh-inning stretch did not get its name until the early 1900s.

In modern baseball, the seventh-inning stretch is a strong tradition. Major League Baseball games always involve it, often by playing music and having video clips on the scoreboards. During the "stretch", fans sing the chorus of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in fondness of the game. Harry Caray sparked what has become a Chicago Cubs tradition by regularly leading the crowd in singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in every seventh-inning stretch. Since his death, the Cubs have invited various famous people to lead the crowd during the stretch.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the song "God Bless America" became common during the seventh-inning stretch, sometimes in addition to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and sometimes replacing it entirely. Some stadiums play "God Bless America" only on Sundays. At Yankee Stadium the song is now played at every game. During the seventh-inning stretch at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minnesota, a portion of "God Bless the USA" is played following the chorus of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". During the 2004 World Series God Bless America was performed during the stretch of Game 1.