Over the years, other players, including King Kelly and John Cahill, have been suggested as Thayer's inspiration, though Thayer himself reportedly denied that the poem was based on any real player. As early as 1900, Fred Pfeffer rejected Casey's claim: "Now, you listen to me! That poem was never written about that Casey." In February 1943, a columnist in "The Sporting News" described Casey's claim to be Thayer's inspiration as a "myth" and wrote: "Thayer ... always declared he had no particular player in mind as his hero. But despite this evidence, original 'Caseys' continue to appear, including Daniel, who was the most persistent and told the story so often he unquestionably came to believe it." Another writer examining the claim concluded that the game cited by Casey as the inspiration for Thayer did not end in a 4-3 defeat of Philadelphia. Rather, Casey got a hit in the ninth inning, driving in two runs, and the game was called due to darkness in a 5-5 tie. Yet another writer claimed to have disproved Casey's claim by pointing out that a strikeout required four strikes in 1887, when Casey claimed to have inspired Thayer by swinging and missing on a third pitch. The author of the latter story noted: "In 1887, according to the rules so revised for that season only, Casey would have had another strike coming to him. That he didn't get it is evidence that Thayer was not writing about any incident in 1887 and that the late Dan Casey either was shortchanged, or was not the hero the author had in mind."