April 25, 2025 • 36 mins
Baseball season is underway, so Will and Mango are celebrating with a deep dive into America’s pastime. What’s the secret feminist message of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”? Why are you more likely to hit a home run in Denver than in Miami? And how did the pipe organ become baseball’s semi-official soundtrack? Our brain-bases are loaded and we’re ready to answer these questions, plus many more!
Photo by Jose Francisco Morales via Unsplash. Thanks, Jose!
Follow us on Instagram @parttimegenius!
Learn more about your ad choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Guess what Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
What's that will?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Did you know?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
The chance of hitting a home run in baseball actually
varies from city to city. And maybe this isn't that
surprising when you think about the length of certain fields
or you think about the Green Monster in Boston, But
actually it goes beyond that. It has to do with
the city's elevation. So the higher a city is above
sea level, the easier it is to hit a homer
in that city.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
That's so weird.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I'd never considered that, But why is that exactly? It's
actually because air density decreases the higher you go up,
and that allows objects to move through it with less resistance. So,
for example, when you throw a baseball at a higher elevation,
it tends to fly farther than it would at sea
level because there's less drag to pull the ball down.
And this thin air effect works to the batter's advantage
(01:06):
in two crucial ways. So, first of all, the lack
of air resistance basically rules out curveballs, meaning that pitches
will travel, you know, straighter, and they'll be easier to hit,
and then the second one. When a batter does land
a hit, there's a better chance of it becoming a
home run again thanks to that air.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
So I'm curious how big an impact is this having
on games? Like how many home runs are we talking
about here?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, it depends on a few factors, including the equipment
that's being used, the skill level of the teams, and
of course the elevation that they're playing. So for example,
in the case of Denver's home team, the Colorado Rockies,
the effect of the low air density was significant enough
to bag them an extra home run per game for
the first seven seasons they played at Coors Field. So
from nineteen ninety five to two thousand and one, the
(01:50):
team averaged one point nine home runs on their away games,
but scored three point two home runs when they played
in their own mile high home turf.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Isn't that wild? That's incredible? But like, you know, you
think about the fans and like playing at home, not
even to travel, Like, how do we know those extra
runs were due to altitude and not some other factors?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, you know, actually this is kind of amazing. So
once the Rockies realized that the mountain air was impacting
their performance. An engineer at cors Field named Tony Cowell
again looking for a way to even things out, and
what he discovered was that Denver's lower atmospheric pressure had
been causing the team's baseballs to actually dry out, making
them bouncier and a little bit lighter. And Cowell reasoned
(02:31):
that the moisture loss had made the baseballs harder to throw,
more likely to fly when hit, and this resulted in
more home runs. So to correct the problem, Cawl did
something pretty ingenious. He installed this giant walk in humidore
at corse Field, specifically for storing these baseballs.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Like one of those climate control rooms for fancy people
who have cigars.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yes, yeah, exactly, And it looks like one of those
big walk in coolers that they use at restaurants, except
this one maintains this steady temperature of seventy degrees fahrenheit
and fifty percent humidity, which is the optimal conditions for
storing a baseball, which I'm sure you knew already.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Oh yeah, of course, So I'm guessing the human door
did the trick. Then.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
The Rockies started using it in two thousand and two,
and over the next nine seasons, the average number of
home runs at Corsfield dropped twenty five percent. It was
such an effective way to ensure the integrity of the
game that many other teams have since installed humidors of
their own.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
That is so weird that baseball teams across the country
have humidors for the baseballs. But it's kind of unfortunate
it hurt their home run stat right, Yeah, well, you
know it wasn't completely a selfless act. The team's reputation
was on the line since the elevation was clearly affecting
their home games. Anyway, since we're talking baseball, I thought
it'd be fun to celebrate the start of this year's
(03:47):
baseball season by shining a light on some of the
sport's unsung heroes, from the fans of the bleachers to
the ballpark organized high above home plate. It's a big
roster to cover, But now that we've warmed up a
little bit, let's die. Hey their podcast listeners, welcome to
(04:22):
Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm
joined by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketter and on
the other side of that soundproof glass, munching his way
through a big box of crackerjack.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Actually, I didn't know they made them of this size.
It's a giant box. That is our friend and producer,
Dylan Fagan. Yeah, but I don't think he likes it
very much. Every time he takes a bite, he seems
to be wincing. Well, that's because Dylan insisted on getting
a box that still had a plastic prize inside. But
you know, since the company phased those out decades ago,
he had to resort to buy in an old, sealed
(04:54):
off box from eBay. So I'm guessing these aren't the
most you know, fresh Crackerjacks that are in there, so
we'll have to check that expiration day. I'm pretty sure
that popcorn was popp during the Reagan administration, if I'm
not mistaken here.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
I really hope the prize is worth it. And that's
what nostalgia I really remind you of, Like Cereal boxes
used to have toys in them, Like kids don't get
any of that anymore, like all the surprises and things.
But speaking of Crackerjacks, I was curious how the snack
got so intertwined with baseball, and it turns out the
product launch at Chicago's World Fair in eighteen ninety three,
(05:31):
and by the turn of the century it had become
one of the top selling concessions at American ballparks, right
up there with peanuts and hot dogs. And then in
nineteen oh eight, the link between baseball and Crackerjacks was
cemented forever when this lyricist named Jack Norworth wrote baseball's
unofficial anthem, take me out to the ballgame.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
That's right, And of course there's that line, buy me
some peanuts and crackerjack I don't care if I never
get back.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah. But what's really interesting is that when Jack Norworth
wrote the song, he'd actually never attended a baseball game,
and for that matter, neither had the song's composer, Albert
von Tilzer. They wrote the most famous baseball song in
the world with zero firsthand knowledge of the sport they
were talking about.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
That is amazing, And so I guess it's like the
song's really a cry for help, then, like they're begging
to be taken out to the ballgame because they've never
been before.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Not exactly. So the pair just recognized there was a
growing market for songs about baseball, and they managed to
write one of the catchiest choruses. Ever, But believe it
or not, there is some long forgotten context to this
song because while most people are familiar with the song's
iconic chorus, you know that it actually has two full
verses that are rarely sung. And you might think, well,
(06:41):
how big a difference could a few extra lines really make?
But honestly, those verses kind of recontextualize the song.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I feel like this is a big setup to tell
us that the song is actually about football this whole time.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Is that what's happening here?
Speaker 1 (06:54):
No, Weirdly, the song is a feminist anthem. Yeah, it's
all there in the missing verses. So when you look
at the original lyrics and the original sheet music, the
lyrics tell the story of Katie Casey, a young woman
with baseball fever who turns down her boyfriend's invitation to
a vaudeville show and insists that he take her to
a ballgame instead.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Oh God, so like the chorus is like her counter
offer or something exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
And apparently she gets her way because the second verse
takes place at the ballgame and describes Katie's efforts to
rally support for the team. And I'm going to play
the recording here adk the game? Do the players right there?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
For name Holy Empire?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
He was when the far was just do up, Dodo young,
doer up.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
The boys Tea made the gang thing this they take me,
I'll do the ball game. You know, I thought you
might be over selling by car at a feminist anthem,
But once you lay it all out, it does feel
progressive to write a sports song from a woman's perspective,
especially in the nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, and she's really a dynamic character. She's up on
her feet, she's arguing with the umpire, she's leading the
crowd in a cheer like Katie doesn't feel out of
place at all in this ballpark. And what's more is
that she seems to have a better grip on the
game than most of the men there do.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yeah, it's interesting because the songwriter didn't seem like much
of a baseball fan, but he created this song that
seems like it comes from the point of view of one.
But do you think he based her on somebody that
he actually knew. Well, that's actually why I brought this up.
So historians now think that Katie Casey was inspired by
Jack Norworth's real life girlfriend. Her name was Trixie Fraganza,
and she was a famous vaudeville actress and outspoken suffragist
(08:46):
in New York City, and the two were dating at
the time Norworth wrote the song. Now Friganza was even
featured on the covers of the two original editions of
the sheet music. That's interesting, you know, it's actually kind
of a shame the verses have fallen by the wayside.
Thinking with the theme of hidden meaning and take me
out to the ballgame. What do you know about rooting
for the home team, mango?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Well, I'm a Philadelphia fan, so I generally know a
lot about heartbreak.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, that's very true. Well, the verb root has always
stuck out to me as odd, because what do plant
roots have to do with cheering on a sports team.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I mean, I guess ideas that fans feel rooted to
their home team the same way that they feel rooted
to their hometown, like they're all connected by that shared
sense of places. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Actually I was thinking something pretty similar to that, but
when I looked into it this week, it turns out
we've got it all wrong. So, according to I know,
this is a big one to get wrong. So, according
to Canadian etymologist Gerald Cohen. The idea of quote rooting
for a sports team likely comes from animal rooting, like
when a pig digs up the ground in search of food,
and Cohen had a pretty firm support for this theory too.
(09:54):
He cites an eighteen eighty nine New York newspaper in
which a baseball fan was said to have quote rooted
more in energetically and with twice the freedom of a
Yorkshire porker.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I mean, that's a great quote, but it still seems
pretty weird, Like, what was it about cheering for a
team that reminded people of pigs rooting for truffles or whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Well, Cohen suggested that some excited fans had stomped their
feet so ferociously while cheering that to onlookers it appeared
as though they were frantically digging a hole.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
That is so weird.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, well, speaking of pigs, this is the fact I love,
and I think real pigs might appreciate it as well.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
All right, what's that?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
So? This fact is about a substance known as magic mud,
and for decades it's been smeared on every game ball
in Major League Baseball. So, according to players, coating a
ball with magic mud increases friction and gives pitchers a
better grip on the ball. And the strangest part is
that the magic mud is real mud. It's harvested from
a secret spot along a Delaware River tributary in South Jersey,
(10:58):
and then it's distributed by the MLB to each team's
equipment measure.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
How weird is that is super weird?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And I always think a baseball is like, you know,
there are things that are banned from being able to
apply to baseballs, But so Major League Baseball has a
secret mud that sort of imbues baseballs with magical properties.
I mean, this honestly sounds a little bit made up.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I know. And the wildest part is that until just recently,
nobody knew if it was just another weird like baseball superstition,
or if the mud really does make the balls perform better.
But then in twenty twenty four, researchers that UPenn finally
got their hands on a sample of the mud and
they were able to conduct a series of experiments to
gauge its spreadability, its stickiness, and its grip potential.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I mean, this is one of those jobs that just
sounds pretty fun, like getting the play around with mud,
slopping it onto baseballs, measuring how sticky it gets.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Sign me up for that, I know. But it was
a little bit more involved than that. So in the end,
the team's work wound up confirming what the MLB knew
all along, which is that the mud really is magic.
As one of the study authors puts it, this is
the magical thing. The mud spreads like face cream and
grips like sandpaper.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Okay, I mean those properties, are they really unique to
this specific mud in New Jersey, Like, there's no way
to replicate this in a lab or something.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
So the weird thing is that MLB has looked into
replacing the magic mud with synthetic lubricants, but so far
all of their attempts to recreate the MUD's mechanical properties
have been a bust to this point. So right now,
it's actually much easier just to keep the tradition going
and keep using the real thing, which I kind of love.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, no, I do too.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
I mean it is interesting with this magic mud stuff
clearly being sanctioned by the league, and like I was
saying earlier, you know you still hear cases of pitchers
applying other sticky substances to balls to make their pitches
spind faster and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, which is obviously considered cheating, right.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, in the cases of things other than this magic
mud from New Jersey, I guess. But you know, players
aren't supposed to doctor the ball with any foreign material,
so there's a limit to how sticky a baseball should be.
But as we've shown, this is a sport steeped in tradition,
and one of the oldest and most readily embraced traditions
is covertly smearing goop on the ball when nobody's looking.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Well. I definitely want to hear all about it, but
before we do, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about
the lesser known heroes and of course villains of America's
favorite pastime. And since we just talked about magic mud,
I think it's a good time to examine one of
the worst kept dirty secrets in American baseball. That is,
of course, the dreaded spitball pitch. Mango, I know this
was one of your favorites. You love throwing the spitball.
But before we get to that, Mango, were you much
(13:52):
of a baseball player.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Absolutely not. I mean I wish I played more. We
played my neighborhood of course, and things like whiffle ball
and whatever. But in terms of rec league, I really
only played T ball, and I was a terror on
the field. Like I would get so excited when I
hit the ball and I would fling the bat behind
me and race the first base. I injured the volunteer parent.
(14:18):
There's so much like the shin so much they had
to watch from behind the fence.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
And also my position was shortstop, and the ball came
to me like every single play, but our first baseman,
who was the coach's kid, could not catch a ball.
So I would get the ball and then I would
race over and tag people on their way to first
base regularly. And in T ball you play like you
know there's not three outs an inning. Like every single person.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Reade, I could picture you doing that because you were
always fast. I could picture you always just trying to
chase them down every single time. You know, it was
around that same age where I broke my arm one year,
and that and that dreaded dodgeball accident. You may remember
hearing about when when my pe teacher threw the ball
so hard at me I flipped over and broke my arm.
So what it meant for baseball is they actually allowed
(15:04):
me to bat one armed and then have somebody else.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Run for you. So still got to play.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
And that's how you ended up on a cover of
Sport magazine.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
That's right, exactly, all right, Well, let's get back to
the spitball. So the spitball is known by many colorful nicknames,
including the spitter or the wet one. Throwing a spitball
was a common technique used by pitchers in the early
days of baseball. Now I involved coating a ball with
foreign substances like salve actually most of the time, and
(15:33):
it was thought to provide a distinctive dvantage on the mound.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
You know, I've never quite understood this, like how to
spitting on the ball actually help?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Well, Sometimes the spit was used to reduce the friction
between the pitcher's fingers and the ball, causing it to
kind of slip out of their hand with less spin
than a regular pitch. And other cases, though, the spit
was actually used to change the aerodynamic properties of the ball.
Applying spit to one side change the ball's wind resistance,
and weight just slightly, you know, would affect how it
behaved in the air. So, when thrown correctly, a spitball
(16:04):
would drop straight down as it flew, causing the batter
to hit the top part of the ball on a swing,
and that would result in them hitting just a ground ball. Now,
the downside of this tactic was that it frequently led
to fewer home runs and more low scoring games, which
you'd imagine weren't exactly riveting to watch. In fact, these
dole outcomes became so routine that early twentieth century baseball
(16:25):
is now referred to as the dead ball era.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
That's weird. I've never heard about that. But I'm curious, like,
do we know who's to blame for this? Like, is
there an inventor the spitball that's credited for this?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Well, nobody really knows when the first spitball was thrown
or who it was thrown to, but the pitch has
definitely been used since, you know, at least the early
nineteen hundreds. So George Hildemran of the Brooklyn Superbus is
known to have experimented with a technique in nineteen oh two.
He's also said to have shared the trick with several
other spitball pioneers, including Frank Cordon and Elmer Stricklett, who
(16:59):
in turn taught the move to others. Now the first
pitchers to lean heavily on the spitball were Jack Chesbro
of the New York Highlanders and Ed Walsh of the
Chicago White Sox. Now, the dirty pitch helped them become
the only American league pitchers to ever win forty games
in a single season, which is a tremendous number of games.
So that success encouraged other pitchers to follow their lead,
(17:21):
and by the nineteen tens, throwing a spitball was a common,
if not controversial practice in professional baseball.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I love that this was something pitchers had to learn
from a fellow player, like there's some secret art to
spitting on a baseball something.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
I don't think they needed lessons in proper spit application.
It's the throwing technique that's pretty hard to nail down.
Not to mention that spitting on the ball wasn't something
that most players would organically think to do, so the
idea had to be introduced by someone who already knew
its advantages. I should note, though, that despite the name
not every spitballer used saliva to make their pitchers less predictable.
(17:56):
They also doctored baseballs with lots of other slick substances,
and including petroleum, jelly, hair products, and of course good
old fashioned mud.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
So it sounds like this was an open secret. Did
anyone ever object to it in this early era?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Oh definitely, I mean the ethics of the spitball were
always hotly contested. In fact, there were rules dating back
to the eighteen nineties that prohibited players from defacing or
otherwise damaging the ball, and people argued on both sides
whether it was appropriate to cover a ball in saliva,
which is just the weird sentence to say gross. But
it didn't matter either way, though, because the only penalty
(18:32):
for an illegal pitch was a five dollars fine, and
even that was rarely imposed, And that ambiguity allowed spitballing
to thrive for a time. But the arguments against it,
of course continued to multiply.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
You mean, like how gross it is to throw a
ball code with human spit argument in.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Itself, Yeah, that was the most frequent complaint, But others
worried that throwing a spitball put too much strain on
a pitcher's arm and could actually do serious damage if
used to frequently. End Though, the spitball wasn't banned because
it was unsanitary or unfair or dangerous, the real reason
it was outlawed was to make the sport more exciting
for fans and profitable for the team owners. So spectators
(19:12):
were tired of these low scoring games, mixing the spitball
and others so called freak pitches was a way to
inject some much needed life into the games. Generating more
fly balls and home runs. Kind of keeps the crowd invested.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
That makes sense, and so when did this spitball band
go into effect?
Speaker 3 (19:28):
So officially, the nineteen twenty season was the last year
in which spitballs were allowed on the field, and after
that any player caught defacing the ball with saliva or
anything else was supposed to be expelled from the game
and possibly for an entire season. However, in a surprising
show of diplomacy, seventeen spitball pitchers were quote grandfathered in
(19:49):
as an exception to the rule, which just also seems
so strange to let them play by a different rule,
But they were all players who had made a living
on throwing doctored pitches, and who wouldn't have had much
of a career without them, so out of respect for
their livelihood, that handful of players, dubbed the bona fide spitballers,
were allowed to keep throwing the pitch for the remainder
(20:10):
of their time in the league is so unfair, and
as a result, the last player who was legally allowed
to throw a spitball was Burley Grimes. And of course
that's got to be his name, right, like Burley Grimes
throwing the spitballers. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and
he used the pitch to help defeat the New York
Giants on September tenth, nineteen thirty four, and then he
(20:31):
retired from the sport ten days later, taking the league
sanctioned spitball with him.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I love that. It's such a crazy fact, Like can
you imagine if, like some people were used to tackling
with a horse collar football? Oh no, you keep doing it, grandfather,
and everyone else has to tackle different.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I bet I bet Burley Grimes did that too.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
So obviously there were players who kept throwing spitballs after this, right, Oh.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Absolutely, and pretty blatantly in some cases. So for example,
up one of the most famous players to use the
dirty pitch was gay Lord Perry, a star pitcher in
the nineteen seventies. Throwing spitballs and making the batter think
he was throwing spitballs were a huge part of Perry's
pitching style, and he leaned hard into that reputation too,
even going so far as to name his memoir, Me
(21:17):
and the Spitter.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
That is so ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
It is super ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
But despite his flagrant flawing of the rules, Perry wasn't
ejected from a game for using the spitball until his
twenty first season in the major leagues, and even then
he came right back the next year for a final season,
and was later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Now,
I do want to note, though, that in recent years,
the MLB has cracked down quite a bit on the
use of foreign substances on baseballs. Beginning in twenty twenty one,
(21:45):
pitchers who violate the rules are now subject to a
ten game suspension, and while the harsher punishment isn't likely
to end the practice altogether, it should at least make
pitchers think twice before they you know, Hakelugi on the.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Ball or whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
That we've totally groast out our listeners. We switch gears
and talk about a much cleaner way to line up
with baseball game.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
That sounds good, But before we do that, let's take
a quick break.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Welcome back to part time Genius. Okay, well, so we've
talked about a few different baseball icons today, Crackerjack, the Spitball,
take me out to the ballgame. But there's one major
part of the baseball experience that we still haven't covered yet,
and that is pipe organ music, the stuff that drifts
over a ballpark during just about every game.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah. I've always wondered that.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
I mean not that I mind that it's actually sort
of a fun and funny part of the whole experience,
But why is there so much organ music in baseball?
Like it's hard to imagine the sport without it, and
yet it still feels kind of random.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, So to answer that, we have to go back
to a largely ignored milestone in sports history, which is
the day when the Chicago Cubs became the first major
league team to have live organ music performed at a ballgame.
So the story goes that in the spring of nineteen
forty one, the Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley wanted a
way to give fans a little pregame entertainment as they
(23:18):
took to their seats, So he installed a pipe organ
behind the grandstand of Wrigley Field, and he hired a
local organist named Ray Nelson to provide the tunes. The
inaugural concert took place on April twenty sixth that year,
just before an afternoon game between the Cubs and their rivals,
the Cardinals.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
And I'm guessing one of the tunes Nelson provided was
back to what we were talking about.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Take Me out to the ballgame.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Weirdly, there isn't a record of which songs he played,
but that seems pretty likely. But we do know some
other odd details about the concert thanks to local reporting.
According to the Chicago Tribune, more than eighteen thousand fans
were in attendance that day, and all of them were
completely delighted by Nelson's performance. And that's despite the fact
that the music wasn't allowed to continue during the actual game.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
And why is that so?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Apparently no one had bothered to clear the rights for
the songs, and because the game was set to be
broadcast on the radio, they had to stop the music
before the first pitch was thrown. The same thing happened
at a game the following day, but the team's manager
promised that by the time the Cubs returned from their
upcoming away games, they would have a deal worked out
with BMI, the music publishing company.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, I had never thought about that before.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
So once they got the music right squared away, the
concerts became just like a more regular thing at Cubs games.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
That was the plan, but unfortunately working out the details
with BMI proved much much trickier than they'd expected, so
by mid May, both the organ and the organists had
disappeared from Wrigley Field. Aside from that one day in
nineteen forty one, the Cub's home turf was actually organ
music free until the late nineteen sixties, which is kind
of unimaginable. Wow. But in the meantime, other MLB teams
(24:57):
took notice of Wrigley's experiment and they decided to try
it for them. So over at Ebbitts Field in Brooklyn,
Gladys Gooding was hired to play the organ during Dodgers games,
making her the first full time organist in Major League Baseball,
and Gooding continued in her role as quote the Ebbitts
Field orgon Queen from nineteen forty two to nineteen fifty seven,
(25:17):
but then she stepped down when the Dodgers moved to.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
LA And I'm curious, was organ music kind of the
norm at baseball games by that point?
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I mean, it was definitely on its way, but the
instrument didn't truly become a fixture of the ballpark until
the nineteen sixties and actually the early seventies.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Oh really, I'm actually surprised that was that late in
the game, like right.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
In the middle of the rock and roll era.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
It seems kind of a weird time for people to
be embracing this pipe organ music.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, but you know, the doors had made it popular, so.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
They had too, right, right, of course.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
But you know, nostalgia's always been a big part of
baseball's appeal, and by that point, plenty of fans had
fond memories of hearing ballpark organ music in their youth.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
That' said.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
A lot of the credit for the organ's late stage
ascendancy belongs to this woman named Nancy, who was the
longtime organist for the Chicago White Sox. When she first
took the job at Kamiski Park in nineteen seventy, she
pretty much stuck to the baseball playbook right like, she
played the Star of Spangled Banner at the start of
every game and take Me out to the Ballgame during
(26:15):
the seventh inning stretch. And she also carried the tradition
on of musically introducing the players at bat by playing
the anthem of their home state. But after a while,
she realized that the state songs were kind of feeling
a bit dated and didn't get much of a reaction
from crowds that were now used to rock and roll,
So from then on she started playing songs that fans
were more familiar with, while always trying to, like somehow
(26:38):
tie the song to a player's name, or their number
or their disposition.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Wait, so is Nancy Faust the person that created walk
up music?
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Yeah, she actually did, but she didn't stop there. So,
fueled by the crowd's positive responses, she started using the
organ to react to the game itself. So when someone
stole a bass, she plays smooth Criminal. And if someone
streaked naked or cross a field, as often happened in
those days, she would play an organ rendition of Is
That All There is? Classy but hands down though, Nancy's
(27:10):
most famous addition to the baseball songbook has to be
the one that she played during strikeouts, which is nineteen
sixty nine. It's Nana Hey Hey kissing.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
So, actually, here's a clip of her playing it at
a game.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
You know, I see what you mean about this livening
up the game, Like there's more than just background music.
She was giving the crowds something to laugh at or
sing along with, and you.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Can definitely see how this heightens the whole experience.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Yeah, she was basically scoring the action of the game
like you would a film, which you know was kind
of a full circle moment for organists because that's exactly
what they'd done during the silent film era. Right. Nancy's
knack for knowing what to play and when to play
it like it really made her this living legend among
baseball fans. Her talents were so renowned that other teams
started sending their organists to Kamiski Park just to watch
(28:06):
her in action, and pretty soon her soundtrack approach to
organ playing became the standard of her trade. But allpark
organ music has definitely had its up and downs over
the years. In the nineteen eighties and nineties, some teams
moved to new stadiums and they didn't bring their organs
with them. Others had their organists retire and then just
didn't hire new ones. But even during that downturn, organ
(28:27):
music didn't fade from the stadiums completely. As you know,
teams would play pre recorded tracks over the loudspeakers to
add just a touch and nostalgia to the games. But
that last tactic worked a little too well, and the
can music made a lot of people pined for the
old days of hearing live organ music at a ballgame,
and all that feedback actually led to a full on
resurgence in the twenty tens, so teams started hiring back
(28:50):
their organists, and as of twenty twenty four, more than
half of the thirty teams in the MLB now employ
an organist. In many cases, the organist is now pair
with a DJ who spins more contemporary tracks between the classics,
and because of that compromise, the organ's future in American
baseball is actually looking brighter than it has been in decades.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Contemporary hits and the organist I started thinking about the
SNL sketch with Will Ferrell, and I think it was
on a guest tire doing the they were the music
teachers and singing the modern hits. But I do have
to say I was not expecting such a rosy outlook
on the state of ballpark organ music in the year
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
But I'm happy about it.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yeah, me too, And I think that's the perfect note
to go out on. But before we hit the showers
and call it a day, I think we should take
a few swings at the fact off.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
So it's still early in the twenty twenty five season
so far, but there's already a breakout start taking the
sport by storm.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Now.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
It isn't a player, though, but a new piece of
equipment called a torpedo bat. Now, unlike a traditional bat,
this one is wider in the middle than it is
at the top, and that change in shape means there's
more mass concentrated in the sweet spot of the barrel,
right where the player makes the most contact with the ball.
This not only provides much greater impact when the ball
and the bat collide, it also makes the bats swing
(30:12):
faster because the weight of the wood is distributed more
evenly instead of being clustered mostly at the top. So far,
the New York Yankees have demonstrated these advantages to great effect,
racking up nine home runs with a torpedo bat in
their first three games alone. We'll have to wait and
see how many other teams adopt the new style of
bat over the rest of the season, but given the
(30:32):
results so far, I imagine just about all of them will
at least take it for a test swing.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Okay, so, another baseball innovator who doesn't get enough credit
is Harvard athlete James Ting, and in April of eighteen
seventy seven, he became the first known baseball player to
don a catcher's mask during a game. Wow Prior to that,
the only gear a catcher used was a rubber mouthguard
similar to that of a boxer, but there was no mask,
no chess guard, no shin guards.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Not even a blow was terrifying.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Reckless approach led to frequent injuries, and as a result,
the career of the average catcher in the early days
of baseball was only three or four seasons. But that
finally changed thanks to Ting's new headgear, which was actually
designed for him by the Harvard team captain, a guy
named Frederick Thayer. It was made from a modified fencing mask,
(31:22):
which was meant to keep ting closer to the plate
without fear of being injured by either the bat or
a ball. Despite the obvious benefits, other catchers were initially
hesitant to adopt the mask because most players and fans
considered it unmanly to wear protective gear. But in the end,
keeping their faces intact proved more enticing than appeasing to
a few angry fans. By the late eighteen eighties, the
(31:45):
catcher's mask had become a fundamental piece of sports equipment,
and baseball catchers have been all the more handsome for
it ever since.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Well, something I never knew until this week is that
the silent film star Buster Keaton was actually a lifelong
baseball fan and a pretty good play or two. But
sometimes his love of the game got in the way
of his actual job, which was, of course making movies.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Now.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
For instance, whenever one of his productions hit a snag
on set, Keaton would stop filming and he'd organize this
impromptu baseball game with the crew until someone came up
with a solution. And while filming at MGM in the
late nineteen twenties, Keaton would often put a game together
at the end of every lunch break, usually taking half
the crew with him. Now, in light of these frequent setbacks,
(32:26):
studio exec Lewis B. Mayer reportedly considered adding a no
baseball clause to the actor's next contract. But luckily for Keaton,
he turned out to be bluffing.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
So he covered some major baseball milestones today. But here's
a quick one. I forgot to mention the first known
reference to the game being played in the United States,
and this dates all the way back to seventeen ninety one.
And the funny part is that it doesn't come from
an article about the sport, or an ad for an
upcoming game or anything like that. Instead, the reference appears
in a vintage by law from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which banned
(32:57):
people from playing baseball within eighty yards of the town Meetinghouse.
Apparently they were worried that a fly ball might break
the building's new windows.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Okay, this next one provides a little vindication for all
of the Katie Caseys of the world who like to
argue with the umpire, because, according to a twenty twenty
four study from the University of Quebec. Yelling at the
ref does get results, and I hate to admit this
because I hate watching people yell at the refs. The
team analyzed data from ten years of Major League Baseball
games and found that after being verbally criticized quote, homeplate
(33:31):
umpires were less likely to call strikes to batters from
the complaining team and more prone to call strikes to
batters on the opposing team. So while berating the umpire
won't score you any points for decorum, it might just
help your team win the game, which is really depressing.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
I know, and it's going to shape how long going
to be as a parent on the field for all
my kids soccer.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Right, scream your head off.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Well, here's a very quick one to end this, and
I think it's super fun. So I think we both
know what a ground roll double is in baseball, where
a ball is hit and then bounces out of play.
So most often the ball will get hit and then
bounce on the ground over the fence, or sometimes it
rolls under a scoreboard or something and the player at
bat gets an automatic double or it gets to advance
to second base. But do you know There's something called
(34:14):
a ground roll triple according to never heard of this.
According to MLB dot com, this occurs when a player
attempts to use his hat to stop a ball on
the ground.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Were they okay?
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Using a hat is a penalty of three bases to
both the batter and any runner on base, which is
just so crazy. I just assumed that you could, like
Willie May's basket, catch a fly ball with your hat,
But apparently if you do, that's an automatic three basis
for anyone on the field.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I did not know that rule. I'd never heard of that.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
All right, Well, I think this fact off is basically
a tie. But between the baseball mud facts and the
ones about taking me onto the ball game, I think
I'm going to give this one to you, Mango.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Well, I will take it. There is so much great
baseball trivia we didn't get to, from the blind adaptation
of baseball called deep ball, to the minor league player
who was once traded for twenty baseball bats, the time
two Yankee players announced in a press conference that they
were dissolving their marriage so that they could switch wives.
There is a lot of craziness that we've missed, and
(35:13):
we'll have to do another episode down the line, but
for now, that's going to do it for today's Part
Time Genius from Mary Gabe, Dylan, Will and myself. Thank
you so much for listening. Be sure to send us
your favorite baseball facts on TikTok and Instagram and we'll
be back in your feed soon with another new episode.
(35:41):
Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
This show is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongaishatikler
and research by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's
episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan
with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive for
iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with social media
(36:04):
support from Sasha Gay, trustee Dara Potts and Viny Shorey.
For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Guess what Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
What's that will?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Did you know?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
The chance of hitting a home run in baseball actually
varies from city to city. And maybe this isn't that
surprising when you think about the length of certain fields
or you think about the Green Monster in Boston, But
actually it goes beyond that. It has to do with
the city's elevation. So the higher a city is above
sea level, the easier it is to hit a homer
in that city.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
That's so weird.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I'd never considered that, But why is that exactly? It's
actually because air density decreases the higher you go up,
and that allows objects to move through it with less resistance. So,
for example, when you throw a baseball at a higher elevation,
it tends to fly farther than it would at sea
level because there's less drag to pull the ball down.
And this thin air effect works to the batter's advantage
(01:06):
in two crucial ways. So, first of all, the lack
of air resistance basically rules out curveballs, meaning that pitches
will travel, you know, straighter, and they'll be easier to hit,
and then the second one. When a batter does land
a hit, there's a better chance of it becoming a
home run again thanks to that air.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
So I'm curious how big an impact is this having
on games? Like how many home runs are we talking
about here?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, it depends on a few factors, including the equipment
that's being used, the skill level of the teams, and
of course the elevation that they're playing. So for example,
in the case of Denver's home team, the Colorado Rockies,
the effect of the low air density was significant enough
to bag them an extra home run per game for
the first seven seasons they played at Coors Field. So
from nineteen ninety five to two thousand and one, the
(01:50):
team averaged one point nine home runs on their away games,
but scored three point two home runs when they played
in their own mile high home turf.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Isn't that wild? That's incredible? But like, you know, you
think about the fans and like playing at home, not
even to travel, Like, how do we know those extra
runs were due to altitude and not some other factors?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, you know, actually this is kind of amazing. So
once the Rockies realized that the mountain air was impacting
their performance. An engineer at cors Field named Tony Cowell
again looking for a way to even things out, and
what he discovered was that Denver's lower atmospheric pressure had
been causing the team's baseballs to actually dry out, making
them bouncier and a little bit lighter. And Cowell reasoned
(02:31):
that the moisture loss had made the baseballs harder to throw,
more likely to fly when hit, and this resulted in
more home runs. So to correct the problem, Cawl did
something pretty ingenious. He installed this giant walk in humidore
at corse Field, specifically for storing these baseballs.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Like one of those climate control rooms for fancy people
who have cigars.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yes, yeah, exactly, And it looks like one of those
big walk in coolers that they use at restaurants, except
this one maintains this steady temperature of seventy degrees fahrenheit
and fifty percent humidity, which is the optimal conditions for
storing a baseball, which I'm sure you knew already.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Oh yeah, of course, So I'm guessing the human door
did the trick. Then.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
The Rockies started using it in two thousand and two,
and over the next nine seasons, the average number of
home runs at Corsfield dropped twenty five percent. It was
such an effective way to ensure the integrity of the
game that many other teams have since installed humidors of
their own.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
That is so weird that baseball teams across the country
have humidors for the baseballs. But it's kind of unfortunate
it hurt their home run stat right, Yeah, well, you
know it wasn't completely a selfless act. The team's reputation
was on the line since the elevation was clearly affecting
their home games. Anyway, since we're talking baseball, I thought
it'd be fun to celebrate the start of this year's
(03:47):
baseball season by shining a light on some of the
sport's unsung heroes, from the fans of the bleachers to
the ballpark organized high above home plate. It's a big
roster to cover, But now that we've warmed up a
little bit, let's die. Hey their podcast listeners, welcome to
(04:22):
Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm
joined by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketter and on
the other side of that soundproof glass, munching his way
through a big box of crackerjack.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Actually, I didn't know they made them of this size.
It's a giant box. That is our friend and producer,
Dylan Fagan. Yeah, but I don't think he likes it
very much. Every time he takes a bite, he seems
to be wincing. Well, that's because Dylan insisted on getting
a box that still had a plastic prize inside. But
you know, since the company phased those out decades ago,
he had to resort to buy in an old, sealed
(04:54):
off box from eBay. So I'm guessing these aren't the
most you know, fresh Crackerjacks that are in there, so
we'll have to check that expiration day. I'm pretty sure
that popcorn was popp during the Reagan administration, if I'm
not mistaken here.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
I really hope the prize is worth it. And that's
what nostalgia I really remind you of, Like Cereal boxes
used to have toys in them, Like kids don't get
any of that anymore, like all the surprises and things.
But speaking of Crackerjacks, I was curious how the snack
got so intertwined with baseball, and it turns out the
product launch at Chicago's World Fair in eighteen ninety three,
(05:31):
and by the turn of the century it had become
one of the top selling concessions at American ballparks, right
up there with peanuts and hot dogs. And then in
nineteen oh eight, the link between baseball and Crackerjacks was
cemented forever when this lyricist named Jack Norworth wrote baseball's
unofficial anthem, take me out to the ballgame.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
That's right, And of course there's that line, buy me
some peanuts and crackerjack I don't care if I never
get back.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah. But what's really interesting is that when Jack Norworth
wrote the song, he'd actually never attended a baseball game,
and for that matter, neither had the song's composer, Albert
von Tilzer. They wrote the most famous baseball song in
the world with zero firsthand knowledge of the sport they
were talking about.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
That is amazing, And so I guess it's like the
song's really a cry for help, then, like they're begging
to be taken out to the ballgame because they've never
been before.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Not exactly. So the pair just recognized there was a
growing market for songs about baseball, and they managed to
write one of the catchiest choruses. Ever, But believe it
or not, there is some long forgotten context to this
song because while most people are familiar with the song's
iconic chorus, you know that it actually has two full
verses that are rarely sung. And you might think, well,
(06:41):
how big a difference could a few extra lines really make?
But honestly, those verses kind of recontextualize the song.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I feel like this is a big setup to tell
us that the song is actually about football this whole time.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Is that what's happening here?
Speaker 1 (06:54):
No, Weirdly, the song is a feminist anthem. Yeah, it's
all there in the missing verses. So when you look
at the original lyrics and the original sheet music, the
lyrics tell the story of Katie Casey, a young woman
with baseball fever who turns down her boyfriend's invitation to
a vaudeville show and insists that he take her to
a ballgame instead.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Oh God, so like the chorus is like her counter
offer or something exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
And apparently she gets her way because the second verse
takes place at the ballgame and describes Katie's efforts to
rally support for the team. And I'm going to play
the recording here adk the game? Do the players right there?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
For name Holy Empire?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
He was when the far was just do up, Dodo young,
doer up.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
The boys Tea made the gang thing this they take me,
I'll do the ball game. You know, I thought you
might be over selling by car at a feminist anthem,
But once you lay it all out, it does feel
progressive to write a sports song from a woman's perspective,
especially in the nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, and she's really a dynamic character. She's up on
her feet, she's arguing with the umpire, she's leading the
crowd in a cheer like Katie doesn't feel out of
place at all in this ballpark. And what's more is
that she seems to have a better grip on the
game than most of the men there do.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yeah, it's interesting because the songwriter didn't seem like much
of a baseball fan, but he created this song that
seems like it comes from the point of view of one.
But do you think he based her on somebody that
he actually knew. Well, that's actually why I brought this up.
So historians now think that Katie Casey was inspired by
Jack Norworth's real life girlfriend. Her name was Trixie Fraganza,
and she was a famous vaudeville actress and outspoken suffragist
(08:46):
in New York City, and the two were dating at
the time Norworth wrote the song. Now Friganza was even
featured on the covers of the two original editions of
the sheet music. That's interesting, you know, it's actually kind
of a shame the verses have fallen by the wayside.
Thinking with the theme of hidden meaning and take me
out to the ballgame. What do you know about rooting
for the home team, mango?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Well, I'm a Philadelphia fan, so I generally know a
lot about heartbreak.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, that's very true. Well, the verb root has always
stuck out to me as odd, because what do plant
roots have to do with cheering on a sports team.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I mean, I guess ideas that fans feel rooted to
their home team the same way that they feel rooted
to their hometown, like they're all connected by that shared
sense of places. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Actually I was thinking something pretty similar to that, but
when I looked into it this week, it turns out
we've got it all wrong. So, according to I know,
this is a big one to get wrong. So, according
to Canadian etymologist Gerald Cohen. The idea of quote rooting
for a sports team likely comes from animal rooting, like
when a pig digs up the ground in search of food,
and Cohen had a pretty firm support for this theory too.
(09:54):
He cites an eighteen eighty nine New York newspaper in
which a baseball fan was said to have quote rooted
more in energetically and with twice the freedom of a
Yorkshire porker.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I mean, that's a great quote, but it still seems
pretty weird, Like, what was it about cheering for a
team that reminded people of pigs rooting for truffles or whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Well, Cohen suggested that some excited fans had stomped their
feet so ferociously while cheering that to onlookers it appeared
as though they were frantically digging a hole.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
That is so weird.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, well, speaking of pigs, this is the fact I love,
and I think real pigs might appreciate it as well.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
All right, what's that?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
So? This fact is about a substance known as magic mud,
and for decades it's been smeared on every game ball
in Major League Baseball. So, according to players, coating a
ball with magic mud increases friction and gives pitchers a
better grip on the ball. And the strangest part is
that the magic mud is real mud. It's harvested from
a secret spot along a Delaware River tributary in South Jersey,
(10:58):
and then it's distributed by the MLB to each team's
equipment measure.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
How weird is that is super weird?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And I always think a baseball is like, you know,
there are things that are banned from being able to
apply to baseballs, But so Major League Baseball has a
secret mud that sort of imbues baseballs with magical properties.
I mean, this honestly sounds a little bit made up.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I know. And the wildest part is that until just recently,
nobody knew if it was just another weird like baseball superstition,
or if the mud really does make the balls perform better.
But then in twenty twenty four, researchers that UPenn finally
got their hands on a sample of the mud and
they were able to conduct a series of experiments to
gauge its spreadability, its stickiness, and its grip potential.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I mean, this is one of those jobs that just
sounds pretty fun, like getting the play around with mud,
slopping it onto baseballs, measuring how sticky it gets.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Sign me up for that, I know. But it was
a little bit more involved than that. So in the end,
the team's work wound up confirming what the MLB knew
all along, which is that the mud really is magic.
As one of the study authors puts it, this is
the magical thing. The mud spreads like face cream and
grips like sandpaper.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Okay, I mean those properties, are they really unique to
this specific mud in New Jersey, Like, there's no way
to replicate this in a lab or something.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
So the weird thing is that MLB has looked into
replacing the magic mud with synthetic lubricants, but so far
all of their attempts to recreate the MUD's mechanical properties
have been a bust to this point. So right now,
it's actually much easier just to keep the tradition going
and keep using the real thing, which I kind of love.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, no, I do too.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
I mean it is interesting with this magic mud stuff
clearly being sanctioned by the league, and like I was
saying earlier, you know you still hear cases of pitchers
applying other sticky substances to balls to make their pitches
spind faster and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, which is obviously considered cheating, right.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, in the cases of things other than this magic
mud from New Jersey, I guess. But you know, players
aren't supposed to doctor the ball with any foreign material,
so there's a limit to how sticky a baseball should be.
But as we've shown, this is a sport steeped in tradition,
and one of the oldest and most readily embraced traditions
is covertly smearing goop on the ball when nobody's looking.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Well. I definitely want to hear all about it, but
before we do, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about
the lesser known heroes and of course villains of America's
favorite pastime. And since we just talked about magic mud,
I think it's a good time to examine one of
the worst kept dirty secrets in American baseball. That is,
of course, the dreaded spitball pitch. Mango, I know this
was one of your favorites. You love throwing the spitball.
But before we get to that, Mango, were you much
(13:52):
of a baseball player.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Absolutely not. I mean I wish I played more. We
played my neighborhood of course, and things like whiffle ball
and whatever. But in terms of rec league, I really
only played T ball, and I was a terror on
the field. Like I would get so excited when I
hit the ball and I would fling the bat behind
me and race the first base. I injured the volunteer parent.
(14:18):
There's so much like the shin so much they had
to watch from behind the fence.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
And also my position was shortstop, and the ball came
to me like every single play, but our first baseman,
who was the coach's kid, could not catch a ball.
So I would get the ball and then I would
race over and tag people on their way to first
base regularly. And in T ball you play like you
know there's not three outs an inning. Like every single person.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Reade, I could picture you doing that because you were
always fast. I could picture you always just trying to
chase them down every single time. You know, it was
around that same age where I broke my arm one year,
and that and that dreaded dodgeball accident. You may remember
hearing about when when my pe teacher threw the ball
so hard at me I flipped over and broke my arm.
So what it meant for baseball is they actually allowed
(15:04):
me to bat one armed and then have somebody else.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Run for you. So still got to play.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
And that's how you ended up on a cover of
Sport magazine.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
That's right, exactly, all right, Well, let's get back to
the spitball. So the spitball is known by many colorful nicknames,
including the spitter or the wet one. Throwing a spitball
was a common technique used by pitchers in the early
days of baseball. Now I involved coating a ball with
foreign substances like salve actually most of the time, and
(15:33):
it was thought to provide a distinctive dvantage on the mound.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
You know, I've never quite understood this, like how to
spitting on the ball actually help?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Well, Sometimes the spit was used to reduce the friction
between the pitcher's fingers and the ball, causing it to
kind of slip out of their hand with less spin
than a regular pitch. And other cases, though, the spit
was actually used to change the aerodynamic properties of the ball.
Applying spit to one side change the ball's wind resistance,
and weight just slightly, you know, would affect how it
behaved in the air. So, when thrown correctly, a spitball
(16:04):
would drop straight down as it flew, causing the batter
to hit the top part of the ball on a swing,
and that would result in them hitting just a ground ball. Now,
the downside of this tactic was that it frequently led
to fewer home runs and more low scoring games, which
you'd imagine weren't exactly riveting to watch. In fact, these
dole outcomes became so routine that early twentieth century baseball
(16:25):
is now referred to as the dead ball era.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
That's weird. I've never heard about that. But I'm curious, like,
do we know who's to blame for this? Like, is
there an inventor the spitball that's credited for this?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Well, nobody really knows when the first spitball was thrown
or who it was thrown to, but the pitch has
definitely been used since, you know, at least the early
nineteen hundreds. So George Hildemran of the Brooklyn Superbus is
known to have experimented with a technique in nineteen oh two.
He's also said to have shared the trick with several
other spitball pioneers, including Frank Cordon and Elmer Stricklett, who
(16:59):
in turn taught the move to others. Now the first
pitchers to lean heavily on the spitball were Jack Chesbro
of the New York Highlanders and Ed Walsh of the
Chicago White Sox. Now, the dirty pitch helped them become
the only American league pitchers to ever win forty games
in a single season, which is a tremendous number of games.
So that success encouraged other pitchers to follow their lead,
(17:21):
and by the nineteen tens, throwing a spitball was a common,
if not controversial practice in professional baseball.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I love that this was something pitchers had to learn
from a fellow player, like there's some secret art to
spitting on a baseball something.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
I don't think they needed lessons in proper spit application.
It's the throwing technique that's pretty hard to nail down.
Not to mention that spitting on the ball wasn't something
that most players would organically think to do, so the
idea had to be introduced by someone who already knew
its advantages. I should note, though, that despite the name
not every spitballer used saliva to make their pitchers less predictable.
(17:56):
They also doctored baseballs with lots of other slick substances,
and including petroleum, jelly, hair products, and of course good
old fashioned mud.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
So it sounds like this was an open secret. Did
anyone ever object to it in this early era?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Oh definitely, I mean the ethics of the spitball were
always hotly contested. In fact, there were rules dating back
to the eighteen nineties that prohibited players from defacing or
otherwise damaging the ball, and people argued on both sides
whether it was appropriate to cover a ball in saliva,
which is just the weird sentence to say gross. But
it didn't matter either way, though, because the only penalty
(18:32):
for an illegal pitch was a five dollars fine, and
even that was rarely imposed, And that ambiguity allowed spitballing
to thrive for a time. But the arguments against it,
of course continued to multiply.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
You mean, like how gross it is to throw a
ball code with human spit argument in.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Itself, Yeah, that was the most frequent complaint, But others
worried that throwing a spitball put too much strain on
a pitcher's arm and could actually do serious damage if
used to frequently. End Though, the spitball wasn't banned because
it was unsanitary or unfair or dangerous, the real reason
it was outlawed was to make the sport more exciting
for fans and profitable for the team owners. So spectators
(19:12):
were tired of these low scoring games, mixing the spitball
and others so called freak pitches was a way to
inject some much needed life into the games. Generating more
fly balls and home runs. Kind of keeps the crowd invested.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
That makes sense, and so when did this spitball band
go into effect?
Speaker 3 (19:28):
So officially, the nineteen twenty season was the last year
in which spitballs were allowed on the field, and after
that any player caught defacing the ball with saliva or
anything else was supposed to be expelled from the game
and possibly for an entire season. However, in a surprising
show of diplomacy, seventeen spitball pitchers were quote grandfathered in
(19:49):
as an exception to the rule, which just also seems
so strange to let them play by a different rule,
But they were all players who had made a living
on throwing doctored pitches, and who wouldn't have had much
of a career without them, so out of respect for
their livelihood, that handful of players, dubbed the bona fide spitballers,
were allowed to keep throwing the pitch for the remainder
(20:10):
of their time in the league is so unfair, and
as a result, the last player who was legally allowed
to throw a spitball was Burley Grimes. And of course
that's got to be his name, right, like Burley Grimes
throwing the spitballers. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and
he used the pitch to help defeat the New York
Giants on September tenth, nineteen thirty four, and then he
(20:31):
retired from the sport ten days later, taking the league
sanctioned spitball with him.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I love that. It's such a crazy fact, Like can
you imagine if, like some people were used to tackling
with a horse collar football? Oh no, you keep doing it, grandfather,
and everyone else has to tackle different.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I bet I bet Burley Grimes did that too.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
So obviously there were players who kept throwing spitballs after this, right, Oh.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Absolutely, and pretty blatantly in some cases. So for example,
up one of the most famous players to use the
dirty pitch was gay Lord Perry, a star pitcher in
the nineteen seventies. Throwing spitballs and making the batter think
he was throwing spitballs were a huge part of Perry's
pitching style, and he leaned hard into that reputation too,
even going so far as to name his memoir, Me
(21:17):
and the Spitter.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
That is so ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
It is super ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
But despite his flagrant flawing of the rules, Perry wasn't
ejected from a game for using the spitball until his
twenty first season in the major leagues, and even then
he came right back the next year for a final season,
and was later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Now,
I do want to note, though, that in recent years,
the MLB has cracked down quite a bit on the
use of foreign substances on baseballs. Beginning in twenty twenty one,
(21:45):
pitchers who violate the rules are now subject to a
ten game suspension, and while the harsher punishment isn't likely
to end the practice altogether, it should at least make
pitchers think twice before they you know, Hakelugi on the.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Ball or whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
That we've totally groast out our listeners. We switch gears
and talk about a much cleaner way to line up
with baseball game.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
That sounds good, But before we do that, let's take
a quick break.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Welcome back to part time Genius. Okay, well, so we've
talked about a few different baseball icons today, Crackerjack, the Spitball,
take me out to the ballgame. But there's one major
part of the baseball experience that we still haven't covered yet,
and that is pipe organ music, the stuff that drifts
over a ballpark during just about every game.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah. I've always wondered that.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
I mean not that I mind that it's actually sort
of a fun and funny part of the whole experience,
But why is there so much organ music in baseball?
Like it's hard to imagine the sport without it, and
yet it still feels kind of random.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, So to answer that, we have to go back
to a largely ignored milestone in sports history, which is
the day when the Chicago Cubs became the first major
league team to have live organ music performed at a ballgame.
So the story goes that in the spring of nineteen
forty one, the Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley wanted a
way to give fans a little pregame entertainment as they
(23:18):
took to their seats, So he installed a pipe organ
behind the grandstand of Wrigley Field, and he hired a
local organist named Ray Nelson to provide the tunes. The
inaugural concert took place on April twenty sixth that year,
just before an afternoon game between the Cubs and their rivals,
the Cardinals.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
And I'm guessing one of the tunes Nelson provided was
back to what we were talking about.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Take Me out to the ballgame.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Weirdly, there isn't a record of which songs he played,
but that seems pretty likely. But we do know some
other odd details about the concert thanks to local reporting.
According to the Chicago Tribune, more than eighteen thousand fans
were in attendance that day, and all of them were
completely delighted by Nelson's performance. And that's despite the fact
that the music wasn't allowed to continue during the actual game.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
And why is that so?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Apparently no one had bothered to clear the rights for
the songs, and because the game was set to be
broadcast on the radio, they had to stop the music
before the first pitch was thrown. The same thing happened
at a game the following day, but the team's manager
promised that by the time the Cubs returned from their
upcoming away games, they would have a deal worked out
with BMI, the music publishing company.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, I had never thought about that before.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
So once they got the music right squared away, the
concerts became just like a more regular thing at Cubs games.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
That was the plan, but unfortunately working out the details
with BMI proved much much trickier than they'd expected, so
by mid May, both the organ and the organists had
disappeared from Wrigley Field. Aside from that one day in
nineteen forty one, the Cub's home turf was actually organ
music free until the late nineteen sixties, which is kind
of unimaginable. Wow. But in the meantime, other MLB teams
(24:57):
took notice of Wrigley's experiment and they decided to try
it for them. So over at Ebbitts Field in Brooklyn,
Gladys Gooding was hired to play the organ during Dodgers games,
making her the first full time organist in Major League Baseball,
and Gooding continued in her role as quote the Ebbitts
Field orgon Queen from nineteen forty two to nineteen fifty seven,
(25:17):
but then she stepped down when the Dodgers moved to.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
LA And I'm curious, was organ music kind of the
norm at baseball games by that point?
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I mean, it was definitely on its way, but the
instrument didn't truly become a fixture of the ballpark until
the nineteen sixties and actually the early seventies.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Oh really, I'm actually surprised that was that late in
the game, like right.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
In the middle of the rock and roll era.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
It seems kind of a weird time for people to
be embracing this pipe organ music.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, but you know, the doors had made it popular, so.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
They had too, right, right, of course.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
But you know, nostalgia's always been a big part of
baseball's appeal, and by that point, plenty of fans had
fond memories of hearing ballpark organ music in their youth.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
That' said.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
A lot of the credit for the organ's late stage
ascendancy belongs to this woman named Nancy, who was the
longtime organist for the Chicago White Sox. When she first
took the job at Kamiski Park in nineteen seventy, she
pretty much stuck to the baseball playbook right like, she
played the Star of Spangled Banner at the start of
every game and take Me out to the Ballgame during
(26:15):
the seventh inning stretch. And she also carried the tradition
on of musically introducing the players at bat by playing
the anthem of their home state. But after a while,
she realized that the state songs were kind of feeling
a bit dated and didn't get much of a reaction
from crowds that were now used to rock and roll,
So from then on she started playing songs that fans
were more familiar with, while always trying to, like somehow
(26:38):
tie the song to a player's name, or their number
or their disposition.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Wait, so is Nancy Faust the person that created walk
up music?
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Yeah, she actually did, but she didn't stop there. So,
fueled by the crowd's positive responses, she started using the
organ to react to the game itself. So when someone
stole a bass, she plays smooth Criminal. And if someone
streaked naked or cross a field, as often happened in
those days, she would play an organ rendition of Is
That All There is? Classy but hands down though, Nancy's
(27:10):
most famous addition to the baseball songbook has to be
the one that she played during strikeouts, which is nineteen
sixty nine. It's Nana Hey Hey kissing.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
So, actually, here's a clip of her playing it at
a game.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
You know, I see what you mean about this livening
up the game, Like there's more than just background music.
She was giving the crowds something to laugh at or
sing along with, and you.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Can definitely see how this heightens the whole experience.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Yeah, she was basically scoring the action of the game
like you would a film, which you know was kind
of a full circle moment for organists because that's exactly
what they'd done during the silent film era. Right. Nancy's
knack for knowing what to play and when to play
it like it really made her this living legend among
baseball fans. Her talents were so renowned that other teams
started sending their organists to Kamiski Park just to watch
(28:06):
her in action, and pretty soon her soundtrack approach to
organ playing became the standard of her trade. But allpark
organ music has definitely had its up and downs over
the years. In the nineteen eighties and nineties, some teams
moved to new stadiums and they didn't bring their organs
with them. Others had their organists retire and then just
didn't hire new ones. But even during that downturn, organ
(28:27):
music didn't fade from the stadiums completely. As you know,
teams would play pre recorded tracks over the loudspeakers to
add just a touch and nostalgia to the games. But
that last tactic worked a little too well, and the
can music made a lot of people pined for the
old days of hearing live organ music at a ballgame,
and all that feedback actually led to a full on
resurgence in the twenty tens, so teams started hiring back
(28:50):
their organists, and as of twenty twenty four, more than
half of the thirty teams in the MLB now employ
an organist. In many cases, the organist is now pair
with a DJ who spins more contemporary tracks between the classics,
and because of that compromise, the organ's future in American
baseball is actually looking brighter than it has been in decades.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Contemporary hits and the organist I started thinking about the
SNL sketch with Will Ferrell, and I think it was
on a guest tire doing the they were the music
teachers and singing the modern hits. But I do have
to say I was not expecting such a rosy outlook
on the state of ballpark organ music in the year
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
But I'm happy about it.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yeah, me too, And I think that's the perfect note
to go out on. But before we hit the showers
and call it a day, I think we should take
a few swings at the fact off.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
So it's still early in the twenty twenty five season
so far, but there's already a breakout start taking the
sport by storm.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Now.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
It isn't a player, though, but a new piece of
equipment called a torpedo bat. Now, unlike a traditional bat,
this one is wider in the middle than it is
at the top, and that change in shape means there's
more mass concentrated in the sweet spot of the barrel,
right where the player makes the most contact with the ball.
This not only provides much greater impact when the ball
and the bat collide, it also makes the bats swing
(30:12):
faster because the weight of the wood is distributed more
evenly instead of being clustered mostly at the top. So far,
the New York Yankees have demonstrated these advantages to great effect,
racking up nine home runs with a torpedo bat in
their first three games alone. We'll have to wait and
see how many other teams adopt the new style of
bat over the rest of the season, but given the
(30:32):
results so far, I imagine just about all of them will
at least take it for a test swing.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Okay, so, another baseball innovator who doesn't get enough credit
is Harvard athlete James Ting, and in April of eighteen
seventy seven, he became the first known baseball player to
don a catcher's mask during a game. Wow Prior to that,
the only gear a catcher used was a rubber mouthguard
similar to that of a boxer, but there was no mask,
no chess guard, no shin guards.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Not even a blow was terrifying.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Reckless approach led to frequent injuries, and as a result,
the career of the average catcher in the early days
of baseball was only three or four seasons. But that
finally changed thanks to Ting's new headgear, which was actually
designed for him by the Harvard team captain, a guy
named Frederick Thayer. It was made from a modified fencing mask,
(31:22):
which was meant to keep ting closer to the plate
without fear of being injured by either the bat or
a ball. Despite the obvious benefits, other catchers were initially
hesitant to adopt the mask because most players and fans
considered it unmanly to wear protective gear. But in the end,
keeping their faces intact proved more enticing than appeasing to
a few angry fans. By the late eighteen eighties, the
(31:45):
catcher's mask had become a fundamental piece of sports equipment,
and baseball catchers have been all the more handsome for
it ever since.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Well, something I never knew until this week is that
the silent film star Buster Keaton was actually a lifelong
baseball fan and a pretty good play or two. But
sometimes his love of the game got in the way
of his actual job, which was, of course making movies.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Now.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
For instance, whenever one of his productions hit a snag
on set, Keaton would stop filming and he'd organize this
impromptu baseball game with the crew until someone came up
with a solution. And while filming at MGM in the
late nineteen twenties, Keaton would often put a game together
at the end of every lunch break, usually taking half
the crew with him. Now, in light of these frequent setbacks,
(32:26):
studio exec Lewis B. Mayer reportedly considered adding a no
baseball clause to the actor's next contract. But luckily for Keaton,
he turned out to be bluffing.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
So he covered some major baseball milestones today. But here's
a quick one. I forgot to mention the first known
reference to the game being played in the United States,
and this dates all the way back to seventeen ninety one.
And the funny part is that it doesn't come from
an article about the sport, or an ad for an
upcoming game or anything like that. Instead, the reference appears
in a vintage by law from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which banned
(32:57):
people from playing baseball within eighty yards of the town Meetinghouse.
Apparently they were worried that a fly ball might break
the building's new windows.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Okay, this next one provides a little vindication for all
of the Katie Caseys of the world who like to
argue with the umpire, because, according to a twenty twenty
four study from the University of Quebec. Yelling at the
ref does get results, and I hate to admit this
because I hate watching people yell at the refs. The
team analyzed data from ten years of Major League Baseball
games and found that after being verbally criticized quote, homeplate
(33:31):
umpires were less likely to call strikes to batters from
the complaining team and more prone to call strikes to
batters on the opposing team. So while berating the umpire
won't score you any points for decorum, it might just
help your team win the game, which is really depressing.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
I know, and it's going to shape how long going
to be as a parent on the field for all
my kids soccer.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Right, scream your head off.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Well, here's a very quick one to end this, and
I think it's super fun. So I think we both
know what a ground roll double is in baseball, where
a ball is hit and then bounces out of play.
So most often the ball will get hit and then
bounce on the ground over the fence, or sometimes it
rolls under a scoreboard or something and the player at
bat gets an automatic double or it gets to advance
to second base. But do you know There's something called
(34:14):
a ground roll triple according to never heard of this.
According to MLB dot com, this occurs when a player
attempts to use his hat to stop a ball on
the ground.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Were they okay?
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Using a hat is a penalty of three bases to
both the batter and any runner on base, which is
just so crazy. I just assumed that you could, like
Willie May's basket, catch a fly ball with your hat,
But apparently if you do, that's an automatic three basis
for anyone on the field.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I did not know that rule. I'd never heard of that.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
All right, Well, I think this fact off is basically
a tie. But between the baseball mud facts and the
ones about taking me onto the ball game, I think
I'm going to give this one to you, Mango.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Well, I will take it. There is so much great
baseball trivia we didn't get to, from the blind adaptation
of baseball called deep ball, to the minor league player
who was once traded for twenty baseball bats, the time
two Yankee players announced in a press conference that they
were dissolving their marriage so that they could switch wives.
There is a lot of craziness that we've missed, and
(35:13):
we'll have to do another episode down the line, but
for now, that's going to do it for today's Part
Time Genius from Mary Gabe, Dylan, Will and myself. Thank
you so much for listening. Be sure to send us
your favorite baseball facts on TikTok and Instagram and we'll
be back in your feed soon with another new episode.
(35:41):
Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
This show is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongaishatikler
and research by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's
episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan
with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive for
iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with social media
(36:04):
support from Sasha Gay, trustee Dara Potts and Viny Shorey.
For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com