For you Baseball Fans...

I have some fond memories of baseball.  I'm not much of a sportster myself, but what good, red-blooded American doesn't look kindly on the sport?  In fact, my first daughter was born during the world series of 2005...that accounts for my OB being MIA for a large portion of the labor!

So anyway...my hubby recently purchased something interesting for us.  It's the Ken Burns documentary on the history of baseball.  It's called...you guessed it...Baseball.  Now, I know that not many people my age are into documentaries, but when you're married to someone with a History Education degree, you learn to embrace things like that.  The truth is, it is mighty interesting.  So, although we are only a scant four hours into the twenty-two, I already have some interesting facts to report.

Did you know that the famous Dodgers were originally from Brooklyn?  They were originally called the 'Trolley Dodgers' because of the intricate maze of trolleys their fans had to navigate to get to the games.  Apparently in those days, the trolleys meandered down the streets in all sorts of directions...they showed footage.  It would scare me!  Brave fans!  How their hearts must have sank when their team was sold to another city.

Here's an interesting character we've learned about so far.  His name was Rube Waddell.



photo courtesy of Wikipedia

This guy was an interesting player!  He wasn't mean like Detroit's famous Ty Cob (I'll cover him later...or maybe I'll have my hubby do it for me!), he was just a complete nut case!

He was a great pitcher, but he had problems concentrating.  Fans of the opposing team would hold up puppies or shiny objects to distract him, and it worked great!  Imagine a pitcher these days doing his wind-up and just before the release stopping because he was distracted at the sight of a puppy in the stands.  Nice!

Sometimes, he'd run out of the dugout mid-game to chase fire trucks for who knows how long.  He'd enter the field via the stands, then stand there and partially strip before running to the dugout to dress for the game.  Yikes!  The documentary said he couldn't remember how many wives he had...I'm not sure if that was for real or if it was a sports writer quote of sarcasm.  He was however, great at striking out batters with his fast ball.  Apparently his arm was quicker than his brain.

They say truth is stranger than fiction!  Next installment...Ty Cobb.