American composer Jack Stamp conceived of Pastime while attending a Giants game in Candlestick Park in 1998 as a salute to the Giants and to baseball in general. He incorporated actual salutes to specific players with musical figures in the measures corresponding to the player's number – for example, with a mighty Eb major chord to celebrate Willie Mays (number 24) in measure no. 24. These salutes are loosely woven around two motives from the anthem of the 7th-inning stretch, Albert von Tilzer's Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Incidentally, neither composer Tilzer nor lyricist Jack Norworth had ever been to a ball game when they wrote that piece in 1908. --James Huff 18:02, March 27, 2007 (EDT) (from the program notes of The Claremont Winds, submitted with permission)