Seventh-inning stretch

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. Also vendors end alcohol sales 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". Since the September 11 attacks, many American ballparks complement or replace the song with the playing of "God Bless America", a practice increasingly being abandoned as the U.S. combat-troop withdrawal from Iraq has completed and that from Afghanistan nears completion. 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 minor-league doubleheaders, a "fifth-inning stretch" may be substituted.