To Mom, With Glove

Although the odds of being hit by a baseball are enormous, Bob Feller's mother was hit by a ball fouled off by a White Sox batter from a Feller pitch. The incident happened on Mother's Day.

One Arm Wonders

Pete Gray was born right-handed but became a lefty baseball player after losing his right arm in a truck accident. He won an MVP award in the minor leagues, then made it to the big leagues for 45 games.

Jim Abbott was born with only a left arm. After mastering the ability to pull his glove on and off, field and throw without dropping the ball, he threw a no-hitter against the New York Yankees in 1993. He also pitched and won the gold medal game for the USA in the 1988 Olympics.

What's our excuse for not achieving?

Why 1920's Kids Wanted To Grow Up Fat

Babe Ruth not only set the one-season home run record four times, but in 1920, his first year with the Yankees, he out-homered all seven opposing teams.

Because It's More Fun To Steal Bases

Ross Barnes, who hit the first home run in the history of the National League in 1876, hit only one more home run in his career.

That Blows!

The Houston Astros were accused of unfair groundskeeping at the Astrodome in 1966. Ed Kranepool of the Mets noticed that the air-conditioning was blowing out when Houston hitters took their swings but that the breeze stopped when the visitors came to bat. He made the deduction by watching the flag in the outfield.

A Popular Sport, Eh?

Between 1996 and 2007, the New York Yankees sold 38 million tickets -- more than the entire population of Canada.

Jack Crack

Broadcaster Jack Brickhouse once said of the Cubs, "Anybody can have a bad century."

The man had foresight. Keep in mind that he said this only 75 years after the Cubs' last championship!

What's The Opposite Of Steroids?

The 1908 White Sox hit only three home runs during the entire season.

Baseball Bits

Just finished reading "Baseball Bits" by Dan Schlossberg. The 238-page soft-cover book is terrific for the person with an interest in baseball and history. "Bits" is right -- each segment is just a few sentences long.

Did you know that the first professional baseball team played its games in 1869? They were so good that they won 69 games in a row (after all, every other team they played were amateurs). But to me the more standout fact is some of those players undoubtedly knew people who had been in the Civil War. In fact the first reference to baseball as the "national pastime" was put in print in 1857, four years prior to the start of the war. Had the conflict ended differently, baseball may have been the national pastime of two countries (at least until NASCAR surpassed it in the Confederacy)!