Vaudeville performance and baseball may seem like altogether unconnected worlds, but around the turn of the century it was not so uncommon for them to crisscross. Take Me Out to the Ball Game centers on this tonal collision in its tale of professional sluggers who spend their offseason gigging under the spotlight and cruising for ladies. Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra star as the prized middle infielders of the Sarasota Wolves, a team destined for a pennant if its players can keep their eyes on the diamond. Esther Williams’ presence as the club’s new owner naturally throws the boys off their game, sending the story tailspinning into romantic entanglements and conflicts of interest, but the real subject of the film (confirmed by a fourth-wall-breaking epilogue) is the dance of erotic energy between the leads. Yielding choreography duties to Kelly and Stanley Donen, Berkeley’s musical sequences take on an unfussy directness, whether in a Celtic-tinged tap-dance at a moonlit clambake, a team sing-along of a whimsical ditty called “Yes, Indeedy,” or an expositional one-on-one between Sinatra and a love interest staged unglamorously on a set of bleachers.