June 30, 2025 • 48 mins
TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLLLLL GAMMMMMEEEEE. Except it's the early 1900's, there's lead in everything, and you're about to watch some of the most unhinged sportsman there ever was. Listen this week as John takes us through, as he calls them, the 4 Horseman of Baseball, and we learn all about their crazy, and strangely often violent, antics.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Shohei Ohtani is currentlytearing it up for the Dodgers
in the Major LeagueBaseball. At the moment.
It was only last Septemberhe became the first player
in historyto join the 50/50 club,
which is 50 home runsand 50 stolen bases in a season.
And I'm not even mentioninghis pitching stats,
which I saw today that,
the lastfive pitches were like 101.4.
(00:22):
There was four pitches
over 100mph with one pitchat 99.6 miles an hour.
Killing it.
Peasant numbers. Pathetic.
And then I could mentionsome other massive names
from baseball historyBabe Ruth, Randy Johnson, Jackie
Robinson, Mickey Mantle, KenGriffey Jr, just to name a few.
But this episode,we three Australians who know
(00:44):
next to nothing about baseballare going to dive into
what some might considerbaseball's rogues gallery.
A couple of the game's strangestno, most eccentric players.
(01:06):
Next to nothing about baseballmight be a stretch.
Take me out to the ball game.
I would say that.
They are to the park.
I don't know what the line is.I would say that
we know practicallynothing about baseball.
I had to look up just then.
While you're talkingthe Dennis Quaid baseball movie
that I was trying to think of,I couldn't even remember.
(01:27):
And it is the easiest.Damn painters in the. Outfield.
No, that's not Dennis Quaid.
I've watched the unauthorizedBash Brothers experience.
Yes, DennisQuaid was in The Rookie,
and that'swhen I heard peasant numbers.
I'm like, oh,that's right, Dennis
Quaid did a thing in a moviewhere he.
Is thatwhen he's the old dude thrown.
Pitching guy by throwing pitch.
And yeah, I was like,oh, this is a good Olson.
Randy Johnson is his name. Yeah.
(01:48):
Mark McGwire spelled very wrong.
I played baseball.
There was so many more like
big historical baseball figuresI could have mentioned.
Then. Like, obviously BabeRuth is a big one.
The big one.
He was also a pretty big.
He was a big fella.
That was when you could be
a professional sportsmanand not be in shape.
(02:09):
You didn't have to bean athlete.
You just.
He was just.
He was just like you. Thing is.
Yeah, you just.You had to be good at the game.
You didn't have to bean athlete.
Then the 80s came along.
And. Steroids. Thanks.
Roids. Yeah. Thanks, Mark.
So back to we.
Back when we say practicallynothing.
There was a few of the acronymsI had to look up.
(02:30):
Yeah. That's all I have to lookup some acronym. It's fine.
I'm just going to load up.
We'll try the baseball.
When the challengeis at the nine by nine by nine
nine glazesnine beers in nine innings.
That's so many.I want to do that.
That's so likeGlizzy is a hot dog.
Nine B's in the nine innings.
Yeah. Okay.
A glizzy is a great namefor a hot dog,
(02:52):
but it's got to be like a prettybog standard hot dog also.
Like,the only thing I really know
about baseball for when I playedMLB The Show for a little bit.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, we did do that.
So we are experts,we expect. That was pretty fun.
Have you seen the Savannahbananas?
Yes, I come up.
Yeah.
Bananabowl banana polo fan. Yeah.
It's like live on YouTubeevery day.
Yeah.
(03:12):
There's a dude thatI watch a lot
on, on YouTube called Sam Reid.
And he goes to kind of really,really silly things like that.
And he went to a SavannahBananas
game, a bit like in the same waythat Ted and Marshall
went to the yeah,
Harlem Globetrotters gameand he like, went
with like supportive gear. For.
Us. Now for a statethis fall. Yeah.
The reaction isthere's the firefighters.
(03:34):
Yeah there's thewho the other two.
I know the two others
because I was watching itthe other day
and they were like, are we goingacross to the other game?
I went, the other guy.
There's actually
talk of the Savannah bananasjoining the MLB.
Yeah.
That I you imagine in the MLB,an outfielder doing a backflip,
then catching the ball.
Yeah, I think that. Might savebaseball.
(03:54):
I probably went downthe rabbit hole
when I saw that on social mediaa little while ago.
I think it's a bit,but it's a good base.
It's a good. Base.
It's a good way to turn thisinto a Savannah Bananas podcast.
Yes. Can you look up?
How many baseball gamesare in a regular season?
It's 169. Nice.
Nice per team? Yes.
So how many total games.
(04:14):
Does.
In one baseball season?
Well,there's like 32 teams in there.
And then don'tthey have, like, a two week
break at the end of the hangon the championship.
And then the season startsagain.
There's two conferences
and there's five teamsin each division
and there's three divisionsper season.
It's 30 teams. Yeah.
So that's a bit.I was getting there. It's
(04:36):
15. There'sa lot there's a lot of baseball
being played in America at alltime.
It's 5070 games, not includingnot including playoffs.
In a regular season.In a regular season match.
And keeping up with. Yeah, they.
Play five days a week
like base basketball'spretty hot and it's half that
like basketball.You think to yourself soft.
Yeah. Basketball.
You think to yourself,oh yeah, like I.
But all of those three gameshappen already.
(04:57):
Crap.
The other thing I didn't know,and it's when I was playing
Microsoft Flight Simulatorcruising over the States
baseball field. Yeah.
Everywhere. Everywhere.
It's called America'sgateway. America's pastime.
That's one America'sgame is football, isn't it?
Yeah. Haha.
That's point 5% about baseball.
I know because I knowit's called pastime. So.
And I know that nowtoo. Let's get into it.
(05:18):
Let's get into our firstbaseball player.
These guys
all come from the early 90sin baseball's golden era.
I call itthe golden era of baseball.
The early 90s, like.
The 1900s, early 90s.
Gotta say, the 1990s is.
The guythat's not that long ago.
Early 90swas the NBA's golden period.
Sorry, the early 1900s,the golden era of baseball.
(05:40):
And we're gonna start with thetwo way slugger.
Oh, nice.
Art shores from Italy.
Mamma mia!
Italy. Texas. Miami.
000, there's a town in Texascalled Italy.
Yeah. Mama and and Iris.
There's also a Parthenoninto Texas, man.
And then we have Texasin Queensland.
(06:02):
There's a Melbourne in Florida.
Yeah, I've heard of that.
There's also a Brisbane.
SomewhereI think it's in Chicago. Yep.
You know there's a New Yorkover there too.
Yeah.
So he was born in 1907and he was one of nine children
to Josh and Sally shires.
He played baseballfor his high school team
even trying outfor the Washington Senators
(06:23):
but wasn't signed.
You failed political careerKnights.
At some point you want to getyour athletics up
because that okay, well.Oh yeah, there you go. Get him.
Now you continue.I'll go get my cool.
You going to continueor do you want to take an
unlicensed jazz break?
No, no, I continue. Okay.
I'm sure you can hear.
I'll just wander off, wanderthrough everybody's cameras.
Okay.
(06:43):
After graduation in 1926, at age19, his professional career
began with the WacoCubs in the Texas League.
During this
time, he assumeda fake identity of Diana Prince.
It's not Wonder Woman, it is.
That's DianaPrince. Prince. Yeah.
Okay.
(07:04):
Diana. Diana.
Diana Prince, Diana Prince
and enrolledin Marshall University
and joined the football teamas a punter.
It's always the punters,the peculiar.
This was pretty short lived
as the athletic directordiscovered his true
identity and immediatelymade him ineligible
to play football careerover before it began.
However, during this short
(07:26):
term, he played like duringthe short period he played.
He is credited with an 80yard punt, a school record
that stood until 2017,beaten by Curry, Vidic,
Curry.
Kyrie, Curry.
Kyrie, double,IRA, Kyrie, Kyrie, Kyrie Irving.
(07:46):
Anyway, it's a recordthat stood for nearly 100 years.
Except Curry didn't he nineokay.
Curry. Oh okay.
He knows off cameraI didn't know.
In 1928 for the Waco Cubs.
He's batting average was 0.387.
It's not bad with 11 homeruns in 108 games.
And on July 31st,his contract was purchased
(08:08):
by the Chicago White Sox. Great.
That's not. Bad.
No, they were. Living in100 and night. 11 home runs.
Yeah,the batting average of 387.
Do you know what it meanswhen they say 387.
Yes, people.
0.387 if one is, youhit the ball every single time.
0.3 I said, yeah.
Because I know that baseball
is consideredlike the hardest sport to play.
(08:29):
Well,
like, yeah, like hitting a homerun is one of the hardest
things to do.
So I looked it up.
They consider a batting averageover 300 is excellent.
Between 200 and 300 is average.
I always found it funny that
they refer to itas 300, 400, 200.3.
They could just call it overpoint three. Yeah.
Like but they don't like.
Too hard to understand.
(08:49):
Because I remember I used to getconfused like oh over 500.
I'm like 500. That's 50.
It's funny because in the NFLthey do the point five.
Yeah.
Like they show win percentagesas points.
Yeah yeah.
So yeah ten many timesthey get a hit type of thing.
So for every At-Bat
making his major leaguedebut for the White Sox
as a first basemanon August 20th, 1928, at 21,
(09:11):
he delivered four hits infive at bats
as future Hall of Famer pitcherRed Ruffing.
Is it fairto assume that our listeners
know what first base is?
Probably not.
You want to tell himwhat first base is that?
Okay?
Imagine yourselflooking at a diamond.
By yourself looking at it.
No Wikipedia,because it's currently
(09:32):
looking at the statsabout Wonder Woman,
because I'm fan thatif you had to check a name.
If you can't explain baseballwithout looking at.
That's why I'm doing it. I'mmaking a fuss.
So baseball, as we understandit, is a variation
on the English game rounders,not cricket.
It's rounders.So it's a variation on rounders.
That is such a British name,by the way.
Yeah, I know I. Should go placeall rounders.
(09:53):
Yeah. Look up conkerswhen you get a cheerio.
You're not getting back inin person.
I think I had that interviewlast time.
Look up conkerswhen you get a chance, okay.
I was to be honest.
Anyway,enough of the impersonations
or the moderatoris going to anyway.
Baseball variationon the British game rounders.
The idea is to hit the balland every time you hit the ball
(10:13):
you have to run, much like tipand run cricket or Figaro.
Unless shout outSean for the video reference.
Shout outthank you. For the tip and run!
Unless it's a foul ball, yes.
That's going be on the conceptof the basics of baseball here.
The fundamental basics.
Now that's a variation of a ruleanyway.
(10:34):
The fundamental basics.
You hit the balland then you have to run
between the basesin the shape of a diamond,
first base being the first oneyou run to,
and so on, second, third
and then home base,which is where you start.
Oh, I thought firstbase was just kissing.
That was,
God, that's.
No wonder we have no listeners.
Saw a silencethen was deafening.
(10:57):
Oh boy. Can't even.
Stitch up. Out.
Anyway. That's baseball.
But if you hit itout of the park, as in over
the walls at the end,not outside between.
First base and third. Base.
Yes, but
if you draw lines outwardsfrom first base and third base,
and then if you hit it overthe walls is in
some way
where the catchercannot jump over to get well,
he would have to jump overto get it,
(11:19):
then this is considereda home run. That's a homer.
Would be the Grand Slam.
That's where you have
all three bases loadedand you hit a homer.
That's correct. The fourth.
And what's the other onecalled where you, like, hit,
a single and then hit a double.
That's a B order, but then hita triple and then hit a home.
And that'scalled something as well.
And then there's. Bunt.
Like you get all possible.
(11:40):
Variations. Hits in one game.That's meant.
Oh as a single batter.Yes. Right it is.
And then it was.
Past where I wantedto get to. That field.
Statistically improbable.
And then it might bea Grand Slam after that as well.
And so I like all that.
Anyway.
Americans love the term GrandSlam when they talk about sport.
Look up golf.
It's too many types.
So this rookie
was so far up himself the lumpin his throat was he's nice.
(12:02):
Oh yeah.
In his rookie yearafter just two months
in the major leagueshe told the presses and I quote,
this isn't the White Sox,it's Shaw's in the White Sox.
Amazing.
And it didn't stop there.
Who is this shooter? Sanders.
He would often refer himself
as the great and compare himselfto Babe Ruth.
Amazing.
How did he ended the 1928 season
(12:25):
with a 0.34 averagefrom 33 games?
Two things happenedafter his first MLB season.
To be fair, like I said, over300 because that is excellent.
So here's Babe. Ruth's.
I think ninth.
This is one this was one seasonfrom 33 games.
So when she was doing that,two things happened.
After his first MLB season.
(12:46):
On December28th, a 53 year old man
from Shreveport, Louisiana,died from head injuries.
Oh no.
He was struck in the headearlier that year in May by art.
It was a gamebetween Waco and Shreveport,
and allegedly,after throwing the ball in anger
at a group of disapproving fans.
Oh, so it wasn't from a likehe didn't wasn't.
Even from here.
(13:07):
He just threw it into the crowd
because obviously hitting women.Oh, and so he died.
Oh, babe Ruth's battingaverage was 0.342, by the way.
Over his career.But what was his claim?
Because this guy has alreadybeaten that.
Over a 22 year career.
His average was 0.342.
The following in the
following year, in March,the man's wife sued for $25,000.
(13:28):
At the end of March,was exonerated
by a grand jury,and the suit was dropped off
in a great settlement of $500was made.
Okay,
the other thing that happenedafter the 1928 season was
when he returned to his hometownin Andre's
hockey market,
whatever that is in Texas.
(13:50):
Wackenhut racks a hockey.
Are you trying to say now?
I can't say it, I know this.
I know it.
Took my brain.
I know it, and I can't. It.
Yeah. Anyway. Go on.
He threw his ownhomecoming parade.
Nelson, hired an entire bandto march with him as he made
the 30 mile trip from the trainstation in Dallas to his home.
(14:13):
That's amazing.It's waxahatchee.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Sorry I put you off. Oh.
So he's he's got his own parade,right?
He made his own sides.
Which said the great choiceas he marched in.
He's right. Pride.
The main street.
I like this guy.
He's a dick.But I like this guy.
(14:34):
He's a dick. Yeah.
For the 1929 season,it was named to be team
captain by managerLena Blackburn.
Two weeks later,he was stripped of that position
and sent home from springtraining for being out of shape,
as well as keeping late hoursand breaking training rules.
School.
In May,was suspended from the team,
(14:55):
because he gave Blackburna black eye during a fistfight.
I punched his manager.
A week later, he apologizedand was reinstated.
And Blackburnwould fight multiple times
throughout the season
without being suspendedthree more times.
And it was thought that
he would be firedover the altercations.
(15:15):
But it actually was Blackburn
who lost his jobat the end of the season
with, finishing the seasonwith a batting average of
3.3123
home runs and 41 runs batted in.
It's still notlike setting the world on fire.
He's not.
Yeah.
Just, for thosethat might have noticed
(15:35):
or might have been interested,a manager in baseball
is not the team manager. It'sactually the coach.
But much like in football,English football.
Except one amazing thing aboutbaseball is the goddamn coach.
Where's the uniform?
Yeah, the same as everybodyelse. And it's. Great.
It is.That is good. It's cool. Yeah.
I love sayingbaseball managers go.
(15:56):
Nuts going nuts, and they haveto wear the same uniforms.
Have fun.
Remind me when I finish this.
Do they go back to, like,you know, you're talking
before looking at videolike people on social media?
Yeah.
Got a few people to reference.We go
in December of 1921, becamea different kind of slugger.
He had his first boxing match,so knocking out an unknown
(16:16):
fighter in 21 seconds.
Slightly irrelevantin a rope line.
Yeah. Okay, that'skind of like this Paul Gallant.
Well, he's first fightfinish 21 seconds.
Knocked him out.
He lost his next fightand then was suspended after
his manager,
was Lee's boxing manager.
Was caught offering money
to future fightersto lose upcoming belts.
Cool. Baseball commissioner.
(16:36):
So Mountain Landis,that's a name
ruled that any player engaged inboxing can consider himself
retired from baseball,as the two activities don't mix.
That was his words.
Yeah, it's fair.
Was then traded a few timesto different teams,
spent some time in the minorleagues with the Brewers
and performed
well for them,which led him to return
to the major leagues,only to get injured
(16:58):
and when returning from injury,
failed to perform,which led to him being dropped
back to the minorsuntil he retired in 1935.
During one of the minor leaguegames, I was heckled by a fan.
Oh no.
It is reportedthat he turned on his heel,
grinned and clapped back.
Sonny,if you want to talk to me,
you'll haveto buy a higher price. Say,
(17:19):
Wow. I mean, that's not bad.
That's a pretty good comeback.
Good comeback.A good, good book.
Let's go. Come back.
After retirement, odd
announced plans to make a runat the heavyweight boxing title
I didn't last.
He was knocked out in the second
round of a fightwith Sid Hunter.
It wasn't even the titleholder at the time.
There are some articlesthat say, then became a wrestler
(17:39):
in the Texas circuit,
but I couldn't really verifyany of those claims.
This should be a wrestlingpodcast.
Hell yeah. Right. Your brother.
Was charged with murderin December of 1948.
What?
He and another mangot into a drunken bar fight.
Later, the charge was downgradedto aggravated assault,
and a jury found him guilty.
(18:00):
And he was fined $25.
Wow. Wow.
That man ended up dying from.
Yeah, from his injuries.
Yeah. Which.
So he'skid. Is it two? That's crazy.
Theoretically, thesedays that would be manslaughter.
Or if you're in South Africa,culpable homicide
came up yesterday.
That was art's rise.
Yeah.
What I said before about,YouTube videos and stuff. Yes.
(18:24):
My algorithm actually feeds mequite a lot of baseball
material. Yeah, I know, so.
I get a lot of John Boy Media
who does, like,recognized recaps.
Yeah.
Shout out to him becausehe doesn't only do baseball.
I've seen him do cricket.
I've seen him do. And, well,
he does a lot of sports stuff,which is very cool.
I also get a lot of,
(18:45):
Trevor Bauer, he's
a pitcher who plays in, like,the Japanese and Mexico leagues.
He's been banned from the MLBbecause of,
previous,
alleged charge against him,which is being thrown out,
and he's still not allowedto go,
but but he's, like killing it in
the those other leagues as well.
Fair enough.
And and who's the other guy?
(19:07):
He's like a big he'sI think he's an ex-player.
He's a bigger dude. Asian fella.Oh okay.
I the king of JuCo.
I get a lot of king
at Duke over the years as well,which he does like
a lot of challenges
with Trevor Bauer,like getting people to hate him.
He does like
different bats hitting stuffhe's done like a cricket bat.
He's done an at bat with acricket bat type of thing, like.
Oh, yeah, I sent that to us.
(19:28):
Yeah, yeah,
I've seen a guy
I do constantlydoing bat reviews,
but all he does is hithome is like, he's
actually just knowabsolutely. In a field.
Yeah. Yeah yeah, yeah.
I don't know his name. Yeah.And he likes cricket bats.
But like Ireally like his content. But
everything'sa homerun every single time.
And that's that's great. Butthen he like starts liking it.
(19:48):
Oh that wasn't that good.It's like okay, we get it.
You can hit a ball really far,but like,
you're going over like,how will you hit it
when the difference is marginalat like and then and then he's
looking at like the distancelike it's a golf review thing.
I'm like okay.
And then he loses me.I just talk about the bat.
I don't care a I hate it.
How did it feel when you hit it.
Get, get a lot of yeah,I get a lot of baseball stuff.
(20:08):
And then there's obviouslythe savanna
banana stuff that pops upthat. Is very funny.
Shout out to Sam Reid
who definitely doesn'tlisten to our podcast,
but Sam Reid, the studio Review,
who gotme onto the Savannah Bananas.
Our next player.
Bugs.
Bugs what?
Bunny bug.
Bugs. Raymond. Bugs. Raymond.
Yeah, that's a namethat needs to come back.
(20:30):
Okay.
Bugs.
Bugs Raymond is our next player,
and it's a bit of a tragic tale.
Oh. Arthur Lawrence Raymondwas born in Chicago in 1882.
From a young age, art,as he was known
then, had a knack for throwing.
Pitching or throwing.
Throwing axes.
But not just throwing hard.
Throwing. Weird.
(20:50):
Okay. Oh, cool.
Is this going to bethe guy that invented
the curve ball or something?Not quite.
Oh, the ball didn'tjust go fast.
It moved in waysthat defied logic.
And that's exactlywhat got him noticed.
He eventually picked upthe name bugs
not because he liked insects,but because people genuinely
thought he wasa little bit off his rocker.
(21:13):
Barking dogs bark.
Chaos. Was the termlike a slanging match?
Like to call someone eccentricor outright mad?
That needs to come back. Yeah,
and with that bugs rhyming.
So like.
Yeah, everybody loves Raymond.
He had a wild eyedlook about him.
The kind you'd seen a manwho might strike you out
or challenge youto a drinking contest.
(21:35):
Maybe both in the same era.
Now, bugs,
he threwwhat was known as a spit bowl.
Oh, yes.
Legal at the time. Yeah.
So that involved dabbingsome sort of goo,
usually saliva or petroleumjelly on the baseball to make
it behave likeit had a mind of its own.
(21:56):
Bugs was a master of it.
His peachesdance dipped and swerved
so unpredictablythat even his own catchers
sometimes had no ideawhere the ball was going.
By 1908, after pitching
35 wins and 11 losses with ano hitter the year before,
he had called his wayto the Cardinals.
Boggs had an incredible season,18 wins with a stunning 2.03
(22:21):
earned run averageand ranked 10th in the league.
The earned runaverage is the average runs
hit against himin a game, right?
So two runs pretty much.
Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah.
Bug Boggswas also on the pitching mound
11 times when the Cardinalsfailed to score.
So like he could havehad a better win loss ratio.
(22:42):
Yeah. Like keepingthe other team to like two runs.
But they didn't score anything.He's hit. Just got nothing.
So did you see the theyou probably didn't.
Maybe you did.
But the score
between the Orioles and the raysthe other day.
No, it was 22 to 8
to the Orioles or Orioles.
Doesn't matter.
But the Penguin, it was sixnil at one point against them.
(23:04):
Oh, really? Through sixnil. Yeah.
And they won 22 eight baseballscrazy man.
Eventually he was tradedto the Giants under the iron
fisted leadership of managerJohn McGraw.
McGraw was a manwho didn't tolerate nonsense.
Unfortunately for him, BugsRaymond was pure nonsense
wrapped in a baseball uniform.
But he was also brilliant.
(23:26):
In that first year withthe Giants, he pitched 18 wins.
He was electric.
Fans loved him. Writerscouldn't get enough of him.
But off the fieldhe was an absolute menace.
I can imagine.
Bugs had a drinking.
Problem. Shocking.
And I don't mean the occasionaltipple after a win.
No, he drank like it was partof his training regime.
(23:47):
Boozefollowed him like a loyal dog.
Before games, after games,sometimes during games.
McGraw desperatelytrying to keep his golden
pitcher on the rails, dideverything you could think of.
He fired him.
He tried locking him in hotelrooms,
even hired a private detective
to follow himand keep him out of bars.
Did it work?
I'm guessing not. No.Based on the.
(24:09):
Not even. Crimecontext of this conversation.
Boggs would give the detectivesthe slip disappear
for a few days, and resurface
with a fresh black eyeand no explanation.
It pitch hung over,sometimes still drunk,
and he still managedto baffle the balance.
Yeah, because he's a drunk guy.
You don't know what he's to do.
By 19, I spew,
(24:31):
I don't know, he died.
The cracks were startingto show.
Yeah. He'sdrinking, got heavier.
His performanceis less consistent.
And in 1910 he startedmissing games altogether.
The Giants finally cut tiesafter going four and 11.
And just like that, his majorleague career was over.
He drifted to the minors
for a bit,playing for smaller teams,
(24:52):
still trying to relive the glorydays.
And in 1912,while playing in the minor
leagues, bugsgot into several fights
and one of them left him badlybeaten.
To which. Art was. It?
To which he died a few weekslater from a fractured skull.
Oh, at only the age of 30.
Why is it so much like seriousviolence happening in baseball
(25:14):
minor leagues?
This is going to bean ongoing thing.
I'm starting to see whyprohibition was a thing.
Yeah.
Yeah, like nearly all of theseguys had a drinking problem.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, nearlyeveryone had a drinking problem.
If we remember my episodeon the prohibition and.
A spitting. Problemfor quite a while,
it waslike the safest way to drink.
Is like spitting problem.
(25:35):
How do you have enough spitto spit on the ball?
Every pitcher.
There are two types of chewingtobacco
dip and chaw.
Dip. It's kind of like,looks like
cigaret tobacco, but it's wetand it's like kind of wet.
It's got like a little bitof fiberglass in it,
and you put it inyour look like this
and it rubs against the gumand you get the nicotine
(25:57):
through your gum.
It's actually illegalto sell it in Australia,
but it's not illegal to have it.
And you can import itin small quantities.
Basically,there's a bunch of weird studies
to do with this, like funkysouthern African version of it,
which is very, very,very bad for you
because it'sfull of weird stuff.
And then everyone in the wholeworld overreacts and went,
(26:17):
now we're going to ban it.
Chaw,
on the otherhand, is much chewier,
and that's the one that they putin the back of their mouth.
And they actually have tosort of physically chew it.
Whereas dip,you don't physically chew,
it just moves back and fortha little bit.
And the chaw constantly createssaliva.
The spit ball, as it was known,was is now an illegal type of
baseball pitch. Yeah, shocking.
I didn't mention that.But yes, it is now.
(26:38):
It wasn't at the time.
It wasn't at the timeand it hasn't stopped anyone
from doing it in the future.
Gaylord Perry famously did it
all the waythrough into the 70s,
and he even titled a bookcalled me in the spitball,
even though it'd be illegalfor like 40 years at that point.
Anyway,he's a very interesting story.
But yeah, they would do thebaseball with spit or Vaseline.
(26:58):
Could you imagine someonehawking a goober on the ball?
Yeah.
Then you hit it and it's sprite.
Yep, yep.
And then if the ball gets wetfrom condensation or rain,
they call it a Godgiven spitter.
When was.
Baseball?
When was like,the bubonic plague?
Oh, like the 1800s.
So that was the obvious factthat still exists.
(27:22):
I'm sorry. It's the.Spanish flu. It was.
It was just at the end of WorldWar two.
No, it was the beginning of.
World War one.
So, yeah, it was the beginningof the 20th century, a polo.
It's not the same like.
It was pinging aroundduring World War one.
And it got really badafterwards. Yeah.
Because they all the soldiersbought it, Yeah.
The reason it's calledthe Spanish flu
possible future episode spoiler
is becauseSpain was a neutral country.
(27:43):
That was finewith talking about it going on.
So it was the one that got known
for all that flu going aroundSpain. Yeah. The Spanish flu.
Yeah. 1918 to 1920.
Oh, maybe this is one reasonwhy it spreads as people
banging dinghies was flying offof it.
Gaylord Perry in the 60s
and 70s
would famouslylike fake out batters,
even though the spitballwas illegal
(28:03):
and everyone would knowthat he would do it.
But sometimeshe would just pretend
and he would, like, touch
different bits of his handsand like, look at the
the batsmen,the best way to catch it.
But the umpire
that he got ejectedonce, the umpire
apparentlyhe would like not be able
to throw the ball back to himbecause it was so wet.
He would walk outand just give it to him.
(28:23):
Can we all just for a second,
the elephant in the room?
Yeah.
Fuck Tua spit on that thing.
I was gonna say we give advice.
Baseball.
We givea baseball crap for people.
But up until Covid, cricketerswould spit on the ball
to show it.
Yeah. They're not.
They're not bowling.
It would spit on it,
but they would use it to shineone side of the no.
(28:45):
I never quite liked using spit.
I was always a big fanof the sweat on my forehead.
Yeah, because I sweat a lot,as we know.
Well, that'show they're going to do it now.
Yeah, but
but spitting on the ballwas the thing in cricket for you
2020 for.
All you non YouTubers.
I don't have hair.
And it means that there'sno hair to catch my sweat
so it all drip down my face.
(29:06):
So I wear sweat.
Sweatband.
Yeah, I wear a sweatbandlike a 1970s baseball.
And I look great.
Yeah,yeah, I can corroborate that.
(29:28):
My next title.
Yep. Baseball meets MontyPython.
Oh, excellent.
We're going backto the early 1900s.
To a man, the Messiah. He'sa very naughty boy.
Sting is to a man who tradedthe baseball field
like it was a stagein every game.
Like a slapstick comedyshow. Amazing.
His name was Germany Schaefer.
(29:50):
Okay, Jim.
Well, a good first name.
He might be
the only professional athletein the history in history
who tried to stealfirst base on purpose.
Why is the first photo
I find of him holding a very,very large camera?
We'll get the. Good.
How do you steal first base?We'll get there.
Okay. He's wearing two glovesin this photo.
(30:12):
John,where are we going with this.
Monty Python meets baseball.This is where we're going.
William Herman Schaefer,better known as Germany.
Schaefer, was born in Chicago.
Chicago, 1876.
Now, he wasn't German.
Not officially. Okay.
But the nickname comesfrom his heritage.
And at the time,
baseball players all hadnicknames like Germany, Dutch
(30:34):
or Hindi, depending on whereyour grandparents came from.
Yes, from the Heineken factory.
Suddenly it was not baseballstrongpoint back then? No.
He broke into the major leaguesin 1901 and spent most of his
career as a second baseman.
He was a good glove,
decent bat,
but nothingthat would have got him
into the Hall of Fameon skill alone.
(30:56):
So he decided to gofor shenanigans.
By Germany Schaefer.
Our legend
was that he treated baseballlike a bloody cabaret act,
while other playerswere spitting tobacco and
grunting about batting averages,Germany was performing.
He was known to turn up to gameswith props.
He once coached third base,wearing a raincoat,
(31:18):
and was carrying an umbrellalike he was expecting a monsoon.
Amazing.
One time, when the crowdwas booed during a rain delay,
he put on an impromptu pantomimewhere he pretended
to be a bullfighter,taking on an invisible bull.
Another day he pulled a toothfrom a teammate with
imaginary applause.
Yes, I get.
Get, get the get the editingready TikTok.
(31:40):
Admitwe need more people like this
to keep us entertainedwhen we're bored.
I don't see a phone.
Watch this man do stuff.
This is literally the Savannahbananas.
Yeah, but.
But in what year was it again?
1901. 1901.
The pretty Nails.
Let's talk
about the infamous backwith a base stealing incident.
(32:03):
The story goes thatin a tight game
Schafer was on first basewith a teammate on third.
Hang on. What.He was on first base.
He was on first teammate on third.
Now the play is that from firsthe would steal second.
Which would make the pitcherthrow the second
allowing third baseto steal home.
That's the standard play.
(32:25):
Schafer steal second.
Easy pitcher didn't bite right.
So now the doublesteal plays on.
So he wants to distractthe catcher.
So I did go going third consultlike I said.
So what does he do.Runs back to first.
Yep. So quickly thinkingor possibly not thinking goal.
He decides to run backto first base on purpose.
(32:45):
He sprints the wrong wayaround the bases,
yelling and waving his armslike a madman.
Like I said, the idea to forceapply the the make the catch.
You look at me. Yeah, yeah.
Can you do that?
Well, you might not believe,but this wasn't an illegal play
at the time, right?
There was no rule againstrunning backwards on the bases.
After Schaefer pulled this stuntand a year later
(33:07):
tried it againwith less success,
I think you got thrown outor the other guy got thrown, yet
the league went right.
We should fix that.
Yeah, I introduced a rulesaying a runner cannot retreat
to a previous baseto confuse the defense.
Germany.
Schaefercalls an actual rule change
in baseball because he broke thesport with slapstick comedy.
That's impressive.
But he didn't stop there.Okay, good.
(33:29):
He once brought a megaphoneto coach from the dugout,
shouting instructions, crackingjokes
and taunting the other teamlike a one man sports talk
radio show. That'sprobably what you can say.
Like the camera,the giant camera.
Maybeit's like a large megaphone.
It's an enormous, largeformat camera.
Yeah, and he's
holding itin the man in the back,
and he's looking very serious.
(33:49):
Another photo you're.
Talking,and the guy in the background
is wearing a bowler hat,and he's laughing,
but quite clearly laughing.
Another timehe announced his own at bat
and he as he walked to the pipebellowing, now batting the one,
the only, the magnificent Mr.
Schaefer,
you might be thinking,this guy, is he a ball player
or is he a stand up comic?
(34:11):
Well, he was in the off season.
Schaefer would hitthe entertainment circuit
performing comedy routines
and tellingbaseball stories on stage.
He toured with Wallace Berry.
He later becamea Hollywood star.
I don't know Wallace Berry is inmaybe something, oh.
What'sthe deal with dugout food?
Banks?
(34:31):
You mightthink this kind of behavior
would annoy his teammates.
Nah, man.
Nope. To be awesome. Nope.
Most of them love this guy,
including Ty Cobb,who was notoriously competitive
and knownto be bit of a grumpy bastard.
He tolerated Schaefer's antics.
One of Schaefer'smanagers said you could find him
and he'd pay, and he'd pay it,
(34:52):
but he'd make you laugh whileyou were riding the ticket.
A lot of finesgetting thrown around by.
So many fans.
Sadly, like a lot of oldballplayers, Schaefer's story
doesn't end in triumph.
He left the majors around 1918and died the following year
at just 43 years old,from tuberculosis.
I mean, at least you didn'tget punched in the head.
Yeah, just TB.
(35:13):
But by then he'dcarved out a legacy
not of homeruns
or amazing plays, but of pure,unfiltered entertainment.
Just think now, every timesomeone does some crazy dance
celebrationafter play or a home run
or even the Savannah bananas,that's Germany.
Schaefer's legacy. Nice.
Now, I just spent all this timetelling you
of all the crazy anticshe caused.
(35:35):
I just wanted to leave youwith this.
Although, like I said earlier,
he didn't havethe greatest stats in the game.
It is said and well knownthat he did have a very sound
baseball mind,like he was very switched on
for the game and playsand stuff like that.
Also, he did change his namefrom Germany to Liberty in 1917,
and you can probably guess why.
Yeah, most likely. Would be one.
(35:56):
Dubbed up on the. Great Wall.
In reference to your singingof the song before.
Take Me to the ball. Yep.
Yep. Sung by.
But, come on, man, Gene Kelly
or Frank Sinatra, one of them,this Gundotra song. It.
This guy inspired the movie.
All right, take me out tothe ballpark. The ball game.
(36:18):
Germany.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Many shows that inspiredthe movie.
Take me out to the ball game.
Yeah I didn't include that.I left that. One.
Field of dreamsis a baseball movie right.
Yes yes.
Yes. Build itand they will come.
Yeah I can rememberif it was baseball or football.
It's baseball.
Remember watching, angelsin the outfield?
That's a good one.That's a really good one.
Christopher Lloyd. Yeah.Great movie.
What's the one with the kid?
Falls on his arm and gets, like,a super rocket arm sandlot.
(36:42):
No, it's like a real young kid.
He's like 9 or 10,
and he's got these strong, like,a hundred miles an hour.
Oh, I don't remember.
And then it's the one was like,
pitches got a bigbut was because he then loses.
He, he falls on his armand loses the ability to pitch.
Like Mike.
Kirby.
No, no that's baseballI mean basketball basketball.
One. Thought he would bite.
So he loses the abilityto pitch.
(37:03):
And this is like the playoffgame and he's pitching.
So he's got to do all thesetrick plays.
Like he's got the bag of flour.
Well the first baseballhas the ball.
And it's the one where he's likepeaches got a big.
But that's where that comes fromI don't know what that was.
Nobody in this room has an ideawhat you talked about.
The movie is calledrookie of the year.
I believe that tells the storyof Henry Rowan. God.
Or a young boy
who, after
breaking his arm, discoversthat he can throw 100mph.
(37:25):
He got signedfor the Chicago Cubs
and becomes a pitchingsensation.
Oh. Cool.
The baseball moviesThe Last Man, The Human Tornado
let me quickly paint a picture
of the mind of this man, RubeWaddell.
That's a good name.
I you've never met a well,I've never heard of a bad Rube.
Imagine.
(37:47):
You're in apacked baseball stadium in 1904.
Picture yourselfwatching a baseball game. Yeah.
Your star pitcher
has just struck out two batterswith absolute precision.
The crowd is roaring. And.
The third batter steps up.
Just then the firetruckson rails in the distance.
You look in the directionof this.
And then backto the pitcher's mound.
But there's no pitcher.
(38:07):
He's off gloves in the air,sprinting towards the fence
and hopping over the fenceto chase the firetruck
down the streetlike a golden retriever.
After a squeaky toy.
Okay. Is he a firefighter?
No. Oh.
George Edward Rube Waddellwas born in 1876, in rural
Pennsylvania, one of six kidsin a farming family.
(38:29):
And from the get go,he was a little different.
Seems it there's a story thatwhen he was three years old,
he just walked off one day
it was either from his houseor from a picnic.
Family had no ideawhere he went.
Days later,
they find him
playing with the firemenat the local firehouse, cool
the farm, and apparentlyjust adopted him like a pet,
(38:50):
and they were justlooking after him.
This kid showed up.
Oh, well, he lives here now.
Yeah. He justhe just lived with the firemen
for a couple of days.
He was a he's he was lefthanded and strengthened
his arm as a childthrowing rocks at birds.
He didn't go to schoolvery often.
Instead, as a youngster, workedin mining and drilling sites.
(39:11):
Right.
As he'sa Fifo worker. Yeah. Black lung.
Look,
now, don't get confused.
Rube Waddell was a freakishlytalented pitcher.
And he threw heat.
Right I.
Don't there's no like numbers ornot I don't think the.
(39:31):
Numbers. Yeah.
He made his major leaguedebut in 1897.
And by the early 1900she was the strikeout king.
In 1904 he struck out $349in a single season, a record
that stood in the AmericanLeague for over 60 years.
And it remains sixthon the modern day list. Wow.
(39:52):
This was unheard of at the time.
Reubenled the league in strikeouts
for six yearsin a row from 1902.
I think it was 1907.
At one point he struck out16 batters in a game
three times in one month. Wow.
That's impressive.
But this brilliance camewith a catch.
(40:14):
Much like the otherswe've looked at so far.
Rube was unpredictable.
Apart from chasingfiretrucks down the street,
some of his other anticsincluded showing up drunk
or just not showing up at all.
And one time he leftthe man mid-game to go fishing.
Just just decidedthat he had enough.
(40:34):
You know what?
I wanted to go fishing. Oh, go.Grab a salmon. Yep.
So you just likewhen he was three in the off
season, he would disappearfor months at a time.
Eventually, it was discoveredthat he had joined a circus.
And what was he doingin the circus?
He was in a tank wrestlingalligators.
You just grab a guy.
This is the off season.
(40:54):
That's crazy behavior.
Rube ended up playing for ConnieMack's Philadelphia Athletics.
Is that the same athleticsthat became these ones?
I believe it, it is.
Yeah, I is, yeah.
That'swhy I got you to get that.
And Mack was a manwho looked like a bank manager.
You say he like managerswear the uniform? Yes.
(41:16):
Connie Mack was a black.
He would wear, like,a business shirt and tie.
Oh, yeah.
So you're like.
He looked like a bank manager,
and he managedlike a kindergarten teacher.
He spent years trying to controlRube.
To be fair, he had some success.
This is when he got,what, the six years
in a row type of thing?Yeah. What?
He tried hiringteammates to babysit him.
He fired him for missing games.
(41:37):
He even tried bribe, bribingbribing Rube to stay sober
during the season.
It sort of workeduntil someone offered
Rube a drink and he said, sorry,I can't.
I'm on the wagon till October,but I'll see you then.
That was Ruth's charm.
He wasn't nasty.
He was just off in his ownworld.
He'd get distracted by shinyobjects, puppies and parades
(42:00):
and the fans.
They kind of caught on to howeasily wants to distract Rube.
Fans would start shaking keysin the stands, which worked.
He could.
You could use. It. Yeah.
He would get distracted by it.
They would bring puppiesto the game
and wave them in the air,and Rube would miss innings
because he was in the dugoutplaying with said puppy.
(42:21):
Okay, this guy,I couldn't be on the team. No.
There was one crazy yearRube had let me go over.
What happened inthat year was 1903.
It started with roofing fans
sleeping in a firehousein Camden, new Jersey,
and then the year ended with himtending a bar in a saloon
in Wheeling, West Virginia.
(42:42):
In between.
Like what happened in betweenboy striping?
Well, he won 22 gamesfor the Philadelphia Athletics.
Nighttwo of the nation in a melodrama
melodramacalled The Stain of Guilt,
courted, married and becameseparated from May when Skinner
of Leon, Massachusetts.
Skinner.
Saved a woman from drowning,
(43:02):
accidentallyshot a friend through the hand,
and was bitten by a lion.
She's.
That's a yes.That's the big. Yeah. Big.
Yeah. That isthat's a busy year.
You got some stuff done, Rube?
Again, let me reiteratehow brilliant this mad man was
when he was on.
He was on, he oncehad an immaculate innings.
(43:23):
That is ninepitches, nine strikes.
That's impressive.
That's an immaculate innings.It doesn't happen often. Yeah.
Nine pitches, nine strikes.
He'd also call outhis pitches to the bat.
Just kind of like I think.
Did Babe Ruth pitch?
No. Babe Ruth, not bad boys,but he would.
Point it hit it.
But but he was doing thispitching
(43:44):
right to be like,I'm going to throw this
and then strike him out. Yeah.
He would also sometimes callhe's in field or is outfield in
and make them sit in the dugoutthen strike the batter.
So I have no fielders out there.
It just be bats.
That's ball Z.
Fact checka Sean would like to jump in.
That was during exhibitiongames.
Major League Baseball actuallyprohibits you from playing with
(44:07):
any less than ninemembers on the field. However,
he still did it.
He actually
did it in a league game once
he got them to sit downon the field
and and and struckand struck him out.
Can you imagine being the batterfor that moment?
It just like.
I've just got to hit it.
I've just all I.
Have to do is bunt itand we fine.
Yeah.
In a league,in a league game in Detroit,
Waddell actuallyhad his outfielders come in
(44:28):
close and sit down on the grassto watch him
strike out the other side,which he did.
Amazing. It's so good.
I love that. One time it didn't
it nearly didn't workin an exhibition game.
He sent everybody off.
He took the field alonewith his catcher, Doc Powers.
Right now, for the last threeinnings with two out,
with two,with two out in the ninth.
(44:50):
Powers accidentally dropped
the third strike, allowingthe batter to run to first base
with the next two hitterssimply blocked.
Pop Flies pop flies that felljust behind the pitching mound.
Despite running himself ragged,
Waddell subsequentlydid strike out the last man
he had to run around and fieldby himself, but he still did it.
An absolute madman.
(45:10):
That is actually waymore impressive
than anything elseI've heard tonight. Yeah.
At the end of his career,started in 1905,
his drinkingproblem caught up with him
and he was mad with injuriesto 1905 and 1906.
Rube went througha bunch of benching,
firings,three hirings and firings.
Again, ultimately,Rube had a tragic end as well.
(45:31):
Yeah, no.
Once again, his good natured,hard showed went wild, helping
rescue people from a floodin Hickman, Kentucky.
He caught pneumonia.
Which led to tuberculosis.
And he never recovered.
He died in 1914at just 37 years old.
Cheese.
And in 1946,long after he'd passed rave,
(45:51):
Waddell was inductedinto the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Rightfully so.
And that boy is what I'd liketo call the Four Horsemen.
Of the ice pocalypse.
Oh yeah, of golden era baseball.
Yeah,it seems like it solid, man.
It sounds like baseball games.
These days were boringcompared to that.
(46:12):
It's all stats and averagesand fitness.
Yeah.
So Shohei Ohtani is nevertelling his field to come in.
This is this is. Why I sit down.Let me.
This is why this amountof bananas I think that's why.
They exist. Yeah. Doing well.
You know they're making ita show.
It's fun to just sit andwatch it for like ten minutes.
But I imagine going to an actualgame would be very fun.
(46:32):
Yeah. Yeah.
Savannah, bananas don't actuallyhave to win every game too.
It's not the garlictrotters. It's not where.
Oh no, no, there's.And it's actual.
That's competitive.They're genuinely good.
Yeah, they're really good.It's like Lady Gazelle.
I've seen multiple videosof an outfielder
back flippingand then catching the ball.
Oh like wall back flippingcatch the ball. I saw. A guy.
There's a guy who plays onstilts.
(46:52):
Yeah. Really?Yeah. He's got. Yeah.
He's three.
Three meters tall
and I've seen himsquatting into base.
That's awesome.
He plays once, andthen they get out of the dugout.
I've seen a video wherehe's like,
he almost turned himself upsidedown. The climb out.
Okay, banana tiles is comingnext week.
Hey, strike zone is the same.
It's just like, oh, yeah.
(47:14):
Yeah,I have to pitch up two after us.
Yeah. Stand like this.
Yeah. That the still to play.
It also pitches.
Oh my God that's incredible.
Yeah that's great I.
Need to watch more bananacontent. Yeah.
So banana like I said
that's Germany Schaefer'slike I say
that kind of style of play.
Like that'swhat he was all about right.
(47:35):
Well great. Great at boy.
I really I really enjoyed it.I never heard of any of them.
No, that was the plan.
I think I'd heardRiverdale's name before.
But I heard the name.Yeah, yeah, that's a good one.
Yeah, but yeah, apparentlyjust an absolute electric pitch.
Just when he was. There,when he was there.
He was the.
What do you do now?
Someone didn't have a puppyin the in the bleachers
(47:56):
jingling rattle.
Get distracted by trees. Oh.
All right. Classic whimsical.
All right.
Great. Out, boy. Great episode.
We will be backin another fortnight
with more Banana Tales.With more, but not enough.
Probably not morebanana tales. Good night.
Ticket.
Good night.
(48:18):
You've been listeningto Cheeky Tales podcast.
If you'd like to seesupplemental images
related to our episodes
or to interactwith us about our episodes,
hit us up on at Cheeky Tales
Pod on Instagram, Facebookand YouTube.
You can watch our episodeson YouTube
or listen to them on Spotify,Apple Podcasts or whatever.
You get your podcasts.
Shohei Ohtani is currentlytearing it up for the Dodgers
in the Major LeagueBaseball. At the moment.
It was only last Septemberhe became the first player
in historyto join the 50/50 club,
which is 50 home runsand 50 stolen bases in a season.
And I'm not even mentioninghis pitching stats,
which I saw today that,
the lastfive pitches were like 101.4.
(00:22):
There was four pitches
over 100mph with one pitchat 99.6 miles an hour.
Killing it.
Peasant numbers. Pathetic.
And then I could mentionsome other massive names
from baseball historyBabe Ruth, Randy Johnson, Jackie
Robinson, Mickey Mantle, KenGriffey Jr, just to name a few.
But this episode,we three Australians who know
(00:44):
next to nothing about baseballare going to dive into
what some might considerbaseball's rogues gallery.
A couple of the game's strangestno, most eccentric players.
(01:06):
Next to nothing about baseballmight be a stretch.
Take me out to the ball game.
I would say that.
They are to the park.
I don't know what the line is.I would say that
we know practicallynothing about baseball.
I had to look up just then.
While you're talkingthe Dennis Quaid baseball movie
that I was trying to think of,I couldn't even remember.
(01:27):
And it is the easiest.Damn painters in the. Outfield.
No, that's not Dennis Quaid.
I've watched the unauthorizedBash Brothers experience.
Yes, DennisQuaid was in The Rookie,
and that'swhen I heard peasant numbers.
I'm like, oh,that's right, Dennis
Quaid did a thing in a moviewhere he.
Is thatwhen he's the old dude thrown.
Pitching guy by throwing pitch.
And yeah, I was like,oh, this is a good Olson.
Randy Johnson is his name. Yeah.
(01:48):
Mark McGwire spelled very wrong.
I played baseball.
There was so many more like
big historical baseball figuresI could have mentioned.
Then. Like, obviously BabeRuth is a big one.
The big one.
He was also a pretty big.
He was a big fella.
That was when you could be
a professional sportsmanand not be in shape.
(02:09):
You didn't have to bean athlete.
You just.
He was just.
He was just like you. Thing is.
Yeah, you just.You had to be good at the game.
You didn't have to bean athlete.
Then the 80s came along.
And. Steroids. Thanks.
Roids. Yeah. Thanks, Mark.
So back to we.
Back when we say practicallynothing.
There was a few of the acronymsI had to look up.
(02:30):
Yeah. That's all I have to lookup some acronym. It's fine.
I'm just going to load up.
We'll try the baseball.
When the challengeis at the nine by nine by nine
nine glazesnine beers in nine innings.
That's so many.I want to do that.
That's so likeGlizzy is a hot dog.
Nine B's in the nine innings.
Yeah. Okay.
A glizzy is a great namefor a hot dog,
(02:52):
but it's got to be like a prettybog standard hot dog also.
Like,the only thing I really know
about baseball for when I playedMLB The Show for a little bit.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, we did do that.
So we are experts,we expect. That was pretty fun.
Have you seen the Savannahbananas?
Yes, I come up.
Yeah.
Bananabowl banana polo fan. Yeah.
It's like live on YouTubeevery day.
Yeah.
(03:12):
There's a dude thatI watch a lot
on, on YouTube called Sam Reid.
And he goes to kind of really,really silly things like that.
And he went to a SavannahBananas
game, a bit like in the same waythat Ted and Marshall
went to the yeah,
Harlem Globetrotters gameand he like, went
with like supportive gear. For.
Us. Now for a statethis fall. Yeah.
The reaction isthere's the firefighters.
(03:34):
Yeah there's thewho the other two.
I know the two others
because I was watching itthe other day
and they were like, are we goingacross to the other game?
I went, the other guy.
There's actually
talk of the Savannah bananasjoining the MLB.
Yeah.
That I you imagine in the MLB,an outfielder doing a backflip,
then catching the ball.
Yeah, I think that. Might savebaseball.
(03:54):
I probably went downthe rabbit hole
when I saw that on social mediaa little while ago.
I think it's a bit,but it's a good base.
It's a good. Base.
It's a good way to turn thisinto a Savannah Bananas podcast.
Yes. Can you look up?
How many baseball gamesare in a regular season?
It's 169. Nice.
Nice per team? Yes.
So how many total games.
(04:14):
Does.
In one baseball season?
Well,there's like 32 teams in there.
And then don'tthey have, like, a two week
break at the end of the hangon the championship.
And then the season startsagain.
There's two conferences
and there's five teamsin each division
and there's three divisionsper season.
It's 30 teams. Yeah.
So that's a bit.I was getting there. It's
(04:36):
15. There'sa lot there's a lot of baseball
being played in America at alltime.
It's 5070 games, not includingnot including playoffs.
In a regular season.In a regular season match.
And keeping up with. Yeah, they.
Play five days a week
like base basketball'spretty hot and it's half that
like basketball.You think to yourself soft.
Yeah. Basketball.
You think to yourself,oh yeah, like I.
But all of those three gameshappen already.
(04:57):
Crap.
The other thing I didn't know,and it's when I was playing
Microsoft Flight Simulatorcruising over the States
baseball field. Yeah.
Everywhere. Everywhere.
It's called America'sgateway. America's pastime.
That's one America'sgame is football, isn't it?
Yeah. Haha.
That's point 5% about baseball.
I know because I knowit's called pastime. So.
And I know that nowtoo. Let's get into it.
(05:18):
Let's get into our firstbaseball player.
These guys
all come from the early 90sin baseball's golden era.
I call itthe golden era of baseball.
The early 90s, like.
The 1900s, early 90s.
Gotta say, the 1990s is.
The guythat's not that long ago.
Early 90swas the NBA's golden period.
Sorry, the early 1900s,the golden era of baseball.
(05:40):
And we're gonna start with thetwo way slugger.
Oh, nice.
Art shores from Italy.
Mamma mia!
Italy. Texas. Miami.
000, there's a town in Texascalled Italy.
Yeah. Mama and and Iris.
There's also a Parthenoninto Texas, man.
And then we have Texasin Queensland.
(06:02):
There's a Melbourne in Florida.
Yeah, I've heard of that.
There's also a Brisbane.
SomewhereI think it's in Chicago. Yep.
You know there's a New Yorkover there too.
Yeah.
So he was born in 1907and he was one of nine children
to Josh and Sally shires.
He played baseballfor his high school team
even trying outfor the Washington Senators
(06:23):
but wasn't signed.
You failed political careerKnights.
At some point you want to getyour athletics up
because that okay, well.Oh yeah, there you go. Get him.
Now you continue.I'll go get my cool.
You going to continueor do you want to take an
unlicensed jazz break?
No, no, I continue. Okay.
I'm sure you can hear.
I'll just wander off, wanderthrough everybody's cameras.
Okay.
(06:43):
After graduation in 1926, at age19, his professional career
began with the WacoCubs in the Texas League.
During this
time, he assumeda fake identity of Diana Prince.
It's not Wonder Woman, it is.
That's DianaPrince. Prince. Yeah.
Okay.
(07:04):
Diana. Diana.
Diana Prince, Diana Prince
and enrolledin Marshall University
and joined the football teamas a punter.
It's always the punters,the peculiar.
This was pretty short lived
as the athletic directordiscovered his true
identity and immediatelymade him ineligible
to play football careerover before it began.
However, during this short
(07:26):
term, he played like duringthe short period he played.
He is credited with an 80yard punt, a school record
that stood until 2017,beaten by Curry, Vidic,
Curry.
Kyrie, Curry.
Kyrie, double,IRA, Kyrie, Kyrie, Kyrie Irving.
(07:46):
Anyway, it's a recordthat stood for nearly 100 years.
Except Curry didn't he nineokay.
Curry. Oh okay.
He knows off cameraI didn't know.
In 1928 for the Waco Cubs.
He's batting average was 0.387.
It's not bad with 11 homeruns in 108 games.
And on July 31st,his contract was purchased
(08:08):
by the Chicago White Sox. Great.
That's not. Bad.
No, they were. Living in100 and night. 11 home runs.
Yeah,the batting average of 387.
Do you know what it meanswhen they say 387.
Yes, people.
0.387 if one is, youhit the ball every single time.
0.3 I said, yeah.
Because I know that baseball
is consideredlike the hardest sport to play.
(08:29):
Well,
like, yeah, like hitting a homerun is one of the hardest
things to do.
So I looked it up.
They consider a batting averageover 300 is excellent.
Between 200 and 300 is average.
I always found it funny that
they refer to itas 300, 400, 200.3.
They could just call it overpoint three. Yeah.
Like but they don't like.
Too hard to understand.
(08:49):
Because I remember I used to getconfused like oh over 500.
I'm like 500. That's 50.
It's funny because in the NFLthey do the point five.
Yeah.
Like they show win percentagesas points.
Yeah yeah.
So yeah ten many timesthey get a hit type of thing.
So for every At-Bat
making his major leaguedebut for the White Sox
as a first basemanon August 20th, 1928, at 21,
(09:11):
he delivered four hits infive at bats
as future Hall of Famer pitcherRed Ruffing.
Is it fairto assume that our listeners
know what first base is?
Probably not.
You want to tell himwhat first base is that?
Okay?
Imagine yourselflooking at a diamond.
By yourself looking at it.
No Wikipedia,because it's currently
(09:32):
looking at the statsabout Wonder Woman,
because I'm fan thatif you had to check a name.
If you can't explain baseballwithout looking at.
That's why I'm doing it. I'mmaking a fuss.
So baseball, as we understandit, is a variation
on the English game rounders,not cricket.
It's rounders.So it's a variation on rounders.
That is such a British name,by the way.
Yeah, I know I. Should go placeall rounders.
(09:53):
Yeah. Look up conkerswhen you get a cheerio.
You're not getting back inin person.
I think I had that interviewlast time.
Look up conkerswhen you get a chance, okay.
I was to be honest.
Anyway,enough of the impersonations
or the moderatoris going to anyway.
Baseball variationon the British game rounders.
The idea is to hit the balland every time you hit the ball
(10:13):
you have to run, much like tipand run cricket or Figaro.
Unless shout outSean for the video reference.
Shout outthank you. For the tip and run!
Unless it's a foul ball, yes.
That's going be on the conceptof the basics of baseball here.
The fundamental basics.
Now that's a variation of a ruleanyway.
(10:34):
The fundamental basics.
You hit the balland then you have to run
between the basesin the shape of a diamond,
first base being the first oneyou run to,
and so on, second, third
and then home base,which is where you start.
Oh, I thought firstbase was just kissing.
That was,
God, that's.
No wonder we have no listeners.
Saw a silencethen was deafening.
(10:57):
Oh boy. Can't even.
Stitch up. Out.
Anyway. That's baseball.
But if you hit itout of the park, as in over
the walls at the end,not outside between.
First base and third. Base.
Yes, but
if you draw lines outwardsfrom first base and third base,
and then if you hit it overthe walls is in
some way
where the catchercannot jump over to get well,
he would have to jump overto get it,
(11:19):
then this is considereda home run. That's a homer.
Would be the Grand Slam.
That's where you have
all three bases loadedand you hit a homer.
That's correct. The fourth.
And what's the other onecalled where you, like, hit,
a single and then hit a double.
That's a B order, but then hita triple and then hit a home.
And that'scalled something as well.
And then there's. Bunt.
Like you get all possible.
(11:40):
Variations. Hits in one game.That's meant.
Oh as a single batter.Yes. Right it is.
And then it was.
Past where I wantedto get to. That field.
Statistically improbable.
And then it might bea Grand Slam after that as well.
And so I like all that.
Anyway.
Americans love the term GrandSlam when they talk about sport.
Look up golf.
It's too many types.
So this rookie
was so far up himself the lumpin his throat was he's nice.
(12:02):
Oh yeah.
In his rookie yearafter just two months
in the major leagueshe told the presses and I quote,
this isn't the White Sox,it's Shaw's in the White Sox.
Amazing.
And it didn't stop there.
Who is this shooter? Sanders.
He would often refer himself
as the great and compare himselfto Babe Ruth.
Amazing.
How did he ended the 1928 season
(12:25):
with a 0.34 averagefrom 33 games?
Two things happenedafter his first MLB season.
To be fair, like I said, over300 because that is excellent.
So here's Babe. Ruth's.
I think ninth.
This is one this was one seasonfrom 33 games.
So when she was doing that,two things happened.
After his first MLB season.
(12:46):
On December28th, a 53 year old man
from Shreveport, Louisiana,died from head injuries.
Oh no.
He was struck in the headearlier that year in May by art.
It was a gamebetween Waco and Shreveport,
and allegedly,after throwing the ball in anger
at a group of disapproving fans.
Oh, so it wasn't from a likehe didn't wasn't.
Even from here.
(13:07):
He just threw it into the crowd
because obviously hitting women.Oh, and so he died.
Oh, babe Ruth's battingaverage was 0.342, by the way.
Over his career.But what was his claim?
Because this guy has alreadybeaten that.
Over a 22 year career.
His average was 0.342.
The following in the
following year, in March,the man's wife sued for $25,000.
(13:28):
At the end of March,was exonerated
by a grand jury,and the suit was dropped off
in a great settlement of $500was made.
Okay,
the other thing that happenedafter the 1928 season was
when he returned to his hometownin Andre's
hockey market,
whatever that is in Texas.
(13:50):
Wackenhut racks a hockey.
Are you trying to say now?
I can't say it, I know this.
I know it.
Took my brain.
I know it, and I can't. It.
Yeah. Anyway. Go on.
He threw his ownhomecoming parade.
Nelson, hired an entire bandto march with him as he made
the 30 mile trip from the trainstation in Dallas to his home.
(14:13):
That's amazing.It's waxahatchee.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Sorry I put you off. Oh.
So he's he's got his own parade,right?
He made his own sides.
Which said the great choiceas he marched in.
He's right. Pride.
The main street.
I like this guy.
He's a dick.But I like this guy.
(14:34):
He's a dick. Yeah.
For the 1929 season,it was named to be team
captain by managerLena Blackburn.
Two weeks later,he was stripped of that position
and sent home from springtraining for being out of shape,
as well as keeping late hoursand breaking training rules.
School.
In May,was suspended from the team,
(14:55):
because he gave Blackburna black eye during a fistfight.
I punched his manager.
A week later, he apologizedand was reinstated.
And Blackburnwould fight multiple times
throughout the season
without being suspendedthree more times.
And it was thought that
he would be firedover the altercations.
(15:15):
But it actually was Blackburn
who lost his jobat the end of the season
with, finishing the seasonwith a batting average of
3.3123
home runs and 41 runs batted in.
It's still notlike setting the world on fire.
He's not.
Yeah.
Just, for thosethat might have noticed
(15:35):
or might have been interested,a manager in baseball
is not the team manager. It'sactually the coach.
But much like in football,English football.
Except one amazing thing aboutbaseball is the goddamn coach.
Where's the uniform?
Yeah, the same as everybodyelse. And it's. Great.
It is.That is good. It's cool. Yeah.
I love sayingbaseball managers go.
(15:56):
Nuts going nuts, and they haveto wear the same uniforms.
Have fun.
Remind me when I finish this.
Do they go back to, like,you know, you're talking
before looking at videolike people on social media?
Yeah.
Got a few people to reference.We go
in December of 1921, becamea different kind of slugger.
He had his first boxing match,so knocking out an unknown
(16:16):
fighter in 21 seconds.
Slightly irrelevantin a rope line.
Yeah. Okay, that'skind of like this Paul Gallant.
Well, he's first fightfinish 21 seconds.
Knocked him out.
He lost his next fightand then was suspended after
his manager,
was Lee's boxing manager.
Was caught offering money
to future fightersto lose upcoming belts.
Cool. Baseball commissioner.
(16:36):
So Mountain Landis,that's a name
ruled that any player engaged inboxing can consider himself
retired from baseball,as the two activities don't mix.
That was his words.
Yeah, it's fair.
Was then traded a few timesto different teams,
spent some time in the minorleagues with the Brewers
and performed
well for them,which led him to return
to the major leagues,only to get injured
(16:58):
and when returning from injury,
failed to perform,which led to him being dropped
back to the minorsuntil he retired in 1935.
During one of the minor leaguegames, I was heckled by a fan.
Oh no.
It is reportedthat he turned on his heel,
grinned and clapped back.
Sonny,if you want to talk to me,
you'll haveto buy a higher price. Say,
(17:19):
Wow. I mean, that's not bad.
That's a pretty good comeback.
Good comeback.A good, good book.
Let's go. Come back.
After retirement, odd
announced plans to make a runat the heavyweight boxing title
I didn't last.
He was knocked out in the second
round of a fightwith Sid Hunter.
It wasn't even the titleholder at the time.
There are some articlesthat say, then became a wrestler
(17:39):
in the Texas circuit,
but I couldn't really verifyany of those claims.
This should be a wrestlingpodcast.
Hell yeah. Right. Your brother.
Was charged with murderin December of 1948.
What?
He and another mangot into a drunken bar fight.
Later, the charge was downgradedto aggravated assault,
and a jury found him guilty.
(18:00):
And he was fined $25.
Wow. Wow.
That man ended up dying from.
Yeah, from his injuries.
Yeah. Which.
So he'skid. Is it two? That's crazy.
Theoretically, thesedays that would be manslaughter.
Or if you're in South Africa,culpable homicide
came up yesterday.
That was art's rise.
Yeah.
What I said before about,YouTube videos and stuff. Yes.
(18:24):
My algorithm actually feeds mequite a lot of baseball
material. Yeah, I know, so.
I get a lot of John Boy Media
who does, like,recognized recaps.
Yeah.
Shout out to him becausehe doesn't only do baseball.
I've seen him do cricket.
I've seen him do. And, well,
he does a lot of sports stuff,which is very cool.
I also get a lot of,
(18:45):
Trevor Bauer, he's
a pitcher who plays in, like,the Japanese and Mexico leagues.
He's been banned from the MLBbecause of,
previous,
alleged charge against him,which is being thrown out,
and he's still not allowedto go,
but but he's, like killing it in
the those other leagues as well.
Fair enough.
And and who's the other guy?
(19:07):
He's like a big he'sI think he's an ex-player.
He's a bigger dude. Asian fella.Oh okay.
I the king of JuCo.
I get a lot of king
at Duke over the years as well,which he does like
a lot of challenges
with Trevor Bauer,like getting people to hate him.
He does like
different bats hitting stuffhe's done like a cricket bat.
He's done an at bat with acricket bat type of thing, like.
Oh, yeah, I sent that to us.
(19:28):
Yeah, yeah,
I've seen a guy
I do constantlydoing bat reviews,
but all he does is hithome is like, he's
actually just knowabsolutely. In a field.
Yeah. Yeah yeah, yeah.
I don't know his name. Yeah.And he likes cricket bats.
But like Ireally like his content. But
everything'sa homerun every single time.
And that's that's great. Butthen he like starts liking it.
(19:48):
Oh that wasn't that good.It's like okay, we get it.
You can hit a ball really far,but like,
you're going over like,how will you hit it
when the difference is marginalat like and then and then he's
looking at like the distancelike it's a golf review thing.
I'm like okay.
And then he loses me.I just talk about the bat.
I don't care a I hate it.
How did it feel when you hit it.
Get, get a lot of yeah,I get a lot of baseball stuff.
(20:08):
And then there's obviouslythe savanna
banana stuff that pops upthat. Is very funny.
Shout out to Sam Reid
who definitely doesn'tlisten to our podcast,
but Sam Reid, the studio Review,
who gotme onto the Savannah Bananas.
Our next player.
Bugs.
Bugs what?
Bunny bug.
Bugs. Raymond. Bugs. Raymond.
Yeah, that's a namethat needs to come back.
(20:30):
Okay.
Bugs.
Bugs Raymond is our next player,
and it's a bit of a tragic tale.
Oh. Arthur Lawrence Raymondwas born in Chicago in 1882.
From a young age, art,as he was known
then, had a knack for throwing.
Pitching or throwing.
Throwing axes.
But not just throwing hard.
Throwing. Weird.
(20:50):
Okay. Oh, cool.
Is this going to bethe guy that invented
the curve ball or something?Not quite.
Oh, the ball didn'tjust go fast.
It moved in waysthat defied logic.
And that's exactlywhat got him noticed.
He eventually picked upthe name bugs
not because he liked insects,but because people genuinely
thought he wasa little bit off his rocker.
(21:13):
Barking dogs bark.
Chaos. Was the termlike a slanging match?
Like to call someone eccentricor outright mad?
That needs to come back. Yeah,
and with that bugs rhyming.
So like.
Yeah, everybody loves Raymond.
He had a wild eyedlook about him.
The kind you'd seen a manwho might strike you out
or challenge youto a drinking contest.
(21:35):
Maybe both in the same era.
Now, bugs,
he threwwhat was known as a spit bowl.
Oh, yes.
Legal at the time. Yeah.
So that involved dabbingsome sort of goo,
usually saliva or petroleumjelly on the baseball to make
it behave likeit had a mind of its own.
(21:56):
Bugs was a master of it.
His peachesdance dipped and swerved
so unpredictablythat even his own catchers
sometimes had no ideawhere the ball was going.
By 1908, after pitching
35 wins and 11 losses with ano hitter the year before,
he had called his wayto the Cardinals.
Boggs had an incredible season,18 wins with a stunning 2.03
(22:21):
earned run averageand ranked 10th in the league.
The earned runaverage is the average runs
hit against himin a game, right?
So two runs pretty much.
Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah.
Bug Boggswas also on the pitching mound
11 times when the Cardinalsfailed to score.
So like he could havehad a better win loss ratio.
(22:42):
Yeah. Like keepingthe other team to like two runs.
But they didn't score anything.He's hit. Just got nothing.
So did you see the theyou probably didn't.
Maybe you did.
But the score
between the Orioles and the raysthe other day.
No, it was 22 to 8
to the Orioles or Orioles.
Doesn't matter.
But the Penguin, it was sixnil at one point against them.
(23:04):
Oh, really? Through sixnil. Yeah.
And they won 22 eight baseballscrazy man.
Eventually he was tradedto the Giants under the iron
fisted leadership of managerJohn McGraw.
McGraw was a manwho didn't tolerate nonsense.
Unfortunately for him, BugsRaymond was pure nonsense
wrapped in a baseball uniform.
But he was also brilliant.
(23:26):
In that first year withthe Giants, he pitched 18 wins.
He was electric.
Fans loved him. Writerscouldn't get enough of him.
But off the fieldhe was an absolute menace.
I can imagine.
Bugs had a drinking.
Problem. Shocking.
And I don't mean the occasionaltipple after a win.
No, he drank like it was partof his training regime.
(23:47):
Boozefollowed him like a loyal dog.
Before games, after games,sometimes during games.
McGraw desperatelytrying to keep his golden
pitcher on the rails, dideverything you could think of.
He fired him.
He tried locking him in hotelrooms,
even hired a private detective
to follow himand keep him out of bars.
Did it work?
I'm guessing not. No.Based on the.
(24:09):
Not even. Crimecontext of this conversation.
Boggs would give the detectivesthe slip disappear
for a few days, and resurface
with a fresh black eyeand no explanation.
It pitch hung over,sometimes still drunk,
and he still managedto baffle the balance.
Yeah, because he's a drunk guy.
You don't know what he's to do.
By 19, I spew,
(24:31):
I don't know, he died.
The cracks were startingto show.
Yeah. He'sdrinking, got heavier.
His performanceis less consistent.
And in 1910 he startedmissing games altogether.
The Giants finally cut tiesafter going four and 11.
And just like that, his majorleague career was over.
He drifted to the minors
for a bit,playing for smaller teams,
(24:52):
still trying to relive the glorydays.
And in 1912,while playing in the minor
leagues, bugsgot into several fights
and one of them left him badlybeaten.
To which. Art was. It?
To which he died a few weekslater from a fractured skull.
Oh, at only the age of 30.
Why is it so much like seriousviolence happening in baseball
(25:14):
minor leagues?
This is going to bean ongoing thing.
I'm starting to see whyprohibition was a thing.
Yeah.
Yeah, like nearly all of theseguys had a drinking problem.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, nearlyeveryone had a drinking problem.
If we remember my episodeon the prohibition and.
A spitting. Problemfor quite a while,
it waslike the safest way to drink.
Is like spitting problem.
(25:35):
How do you have enough spitto spit on the ball?
Every pitcher.
There are two types of chewingtobacco
dip and chaw.
Dip. It's kind of like,looks like
cigaret tobacco, but it's wetand it's like kind of wet.
It's got like a little bitof fiberglass in it,
and you put it inyour look like this
and it rubs against the gumand you get the nicotine
(25:57):
through your gum.
It's actually illegalto sell it in Australia,
but it's not illegal to have it.
And you can import itin small quantities.
Basically,there's a bunch of weird studies
to do with this, like funkysouthern African version of it,
which is very, very,very bad for you
because it'sfull of weird stuff.
And then everyone in the wholeworld overreacts and went,
(26:17):
now we're going to ban it.
Chaw,
on the otherhand, is much chewier,
and that's the one that they putin the back of their mouth.
And they actually have tosort of physically chew it.
Whereas dip,you don't physically chew,
it just moves back and fortha little bit.
And the chaw constantly createssaliva.
The spit ball, as it was known,was is now an illegal type of
baseball pitch. Yeah, shocking.
I didn't mention that.But yes, it is now.
(26:38):
It wasn't at the time.
It wasn't at the timeand it hasn't stopped anyone
from doing it in the future.
Gaylord Perry famously did it
all the waythrough into the 70s,
and he even titled a bookcalled me in the spitball,
even though it'd be illegalfor like 40 years at that point.
Anyway,he's a very interesting story.
But yeah, they would do thebaseball with spit or Vaseline.
(26:58):
Could you imagine someonehawking a goober on the ball?
Yeah.
Then you hit it and it's sprite.
Yep, yep.
And then if the ball gets wetfrom condensation or rain,
they call it a Godgiven spitter.
When was.
Baseball?
When was like,the bubonic plague?
Oh, like the 1800s.
So that was the obvious factthat still exists.
(27:22):
I'm sorry. It's the.Spanish flu. It was.
It was just at the end of WorldWar two.
No, it was the beginning of.
World War one.
So, yeah, it was the beginningof the 20th century, a polo.
It's not the same like.
It was pinging aroundduring World War one.
And it got really badafterwards. Yeah.
Because they all the soldiersbought it, Yeah.
The reason it's calledthe Spanish flu
possible future episode spoiler
is becauseSpain was a neutral country.
(27:43):
That was finewith talking about it going on.
So it was the one that got known
for all that flu going aroundSpain. Yeah. The Spanish flu.
Yeah. 1918 to 1920.
Oh, maybe this is one reasonwhy it spreads as people
banging dinghies was flying offof it.
Gaylord Perry in the 60s
and 70s
would famouslylike fake out batters,
even though the spitballwas illegal
(28:03):
and everyone would knowthat he would do it.
But sometimeshe would just pretend
and he would, like, touch
different bits of his handsand like, look at the
the batsmen,the best way to catch it.
But the umpire
that he got ejectedonce, the umpire
apparentlyhe would like not be able
to throw the ball back to himbecause it was so wet.
He would walk outand just give it to him.
(28:23):
Can we all just for a second,
the elephant in the room?
Yeah.
Fuck Tua spit on that thing.
I was gonna say we give advice.
Baseball.
We givea baseball crap for people.
But up until Covid, cricketerswould spit on the ball
to show it.
Yeah. They're not.
They're not bowling.
It would spit on it,
but they would use it to shineone side of the no.
(28:45):
I never quite liked using spit.
I was always a big fanof the sweat on my forehead.
Yeah, because I sweat a lot,as we know.
Well, that'show they're going to do it now.
Yeah, but
but spitting on the ballwas the thing in cricket for you
2020 for.
All you non YouTubers.
I don't have hair.
And it means that there'sno hair to catch my sweat
so it all drip down my face.
(29:06):
So I wear sweat.
Sweatband.
Yeah, I wear a sweatbandlike a 1970s baseball.
And I look great.
Yeah,yeah, I can corroborate that.
(29:28):
My next title.
Yep. Baseball meets MontyPython.
Oh, excellent.
We're going backto the early 1900s.
To a man, the Messiah. He'sa very naughty boy.
Sting is to a man who tradedthe baseball field
like it was a stagein every game.
Like a slapstick comedyshow. Amazing.
His name was Germany Schaefer.
(29:50):
Okay, Jim.
Well, a good first name.
He might be
the only professional athletein the history in history
who tried to stealfirst base on purpose.
Why is the first photo
I find of him holding a very,very large camera?
We'll get the. Good.
How do you steal first base?We'll get there.
Okay. He's wearing two glovesin this photo.
(30:12):
John,where are we going with this.
Monty Python meets baseball.This is where we're going.
William Herman Schaefer,better known as Germany.
Schaefer, was born in Chicago.
Chicago, 1876.
Now, he wasn't German.
Not officially. Okay.
But the nickname comesfrom his heritage.
And at the time,
baseball players all hadnicknames like Germany, Dutch
(30:34):
or Hindi, depending on whereyour grandparents came from.
Yes, from the Heineken factory.
Suddenly it was not baseballstrongpoint back then? No.
He broke into the major leaguesin 1901 and spent most of his
career as a second baseman.
He was a good glove,
decent bat,
but nothingthat would have got him
into the Hall of Fameon skill alone.
(30:56):
So he decided to gofor shenanigans.
By Germany Schaefer.
Our legend
was that he treated baseballlike a bloody cabaret act,
while other playerswere spitting tobacco and
grunting about batting averages,Germany was performing.
He was known to turn up to gameswith props.
He once coached third base,wearing a raincoat,
(31:18):
and was carrying an umbrellalike he was expecting a monsoon.
Amazing.
One time, when the crowdwas booed during a rain delay,
he put on an impromptu pantomimewhere he pretended
to be a bullfighter,taking on an invisible bull.
Another day he pulled a toothfrom a teammate with
imaginary applause.
Yes, I get.
Get, get the get the editingready TikTok.
(31:40):
Admitwe need more people like this
to keep us entertainedwhen we're bored.
I don't see a phone.
Watch this man do stuff.
This is literally the Savannahbananas.
Yeah, but.
But in what year was it again?
1901. 1901.
The pretty Nails.
Let's talk
about the infamous backwith a base stealing incident.
(32:03):
The story goes thatin a tight game
Schafer was on first basewith a teammate on third.
Hang on. What.He was on first base.
He was on first teammate on third.
Now the play is that from firsthe would steal second.
Which would make the pitcherthrow the second
allowing third baseto steal home.
That's the standard play.
(32:25):
Schafer steal second.
Easy pitcher didn't bite right.
So now the doublesteal plays on.
So he wants to distractthe catcher.
So I did go going third consultlike I said.
So what does he do.Runs back to first.
Yep. So quickly thinkingor possibly not thinking goal.
He decides to run backto first base on purpose.
(32:45):
He sprints the wrong wayaround the bases,
yelling and waving his armslike a madman.
Like I said, the idea to forceapply the the make the catch.
You look at me. Yeah, yeah.
Can you do that?
Well, you might not believe,but this wasn't an illegal play
at the time, right?
There was no rule againstrunning backwards on the bases.
After Schaefer pulled this stuntand a year later
(33:07):
tried it againwith less success,
I think you got thrown outor the other guy got thrown, yet
the league went right.
We should fix that.
Yeah, I introduced a rulesaying a runner cannot retreat
to a previous baseto confuse the defense.
Germany.
Schaefercalls an actual rule change
in baseball because he broke thesport with slapstick comedy.
That's impressive.
But he didn't stop there.Okay, good.
(33:29):
He once brought a megaphoneto coach from the dugout,
shouting instructions, crackingjokes
and taunting the other teamlike a one man sports talk
radio show. That'sprobably what you can say.
Like the camera,the giant camera.
Maybeit's like a large megaphone.
It's an enormous, largeformat camera.
Yeah, and he's
holding itin the man in the back,
and he's looking very serious.
(33:49):
Another photo you're.
Talking,and the guy in the background
is wearing a bowler hat,and he's laughing,
but quite clearly laughing.
Another timehe announced his own at bat
and he as he walked to the pipebellowing, now batting the one,
the only, the magnificent Mr.
Schaefer,
you might be thinking,this guy, is he a ball player
or is he a stand up comic?
(34:11):
Well, he was in the off season.
Schaefer would hitthe entertainment circuit
performing comedy routines
and tellingbaseball stories on stage.
He toured with Wallace Berry.
He later becamea Hollywood star.
I don't know Wallace Berry is inmaybe something, oh.
What'sthe deal with dugout food?
Banks?
(34:31):
You mightthink this kind of behavior
would annoy his teammates.
Nah, man.
Nope. To be awesome. Nope.
Most of them love this guy,
including Ty Cobb,who was notoriously competitive
and knownto be bit of a grumpy bastard.
He tolerated Schaefer's antics.
One of Schaefer'smanagers said you could find him
and he'd pay, and he'd pay it,
(34:52):
but he'd make you laugh whileyou were riding the ticket.
A lot of finesgetting thrown around by.
So many fans.
Sadly, like a lot of oldballplayers, Schaefer's story
doesn't end in triumph.
He left the majors around 1918and died the following year
at just 43 years old,from tuberculosis.
I mean, at least you didn'tget punched in the head.
Yeah, just TB.
(35:13):
But by then he'dcarved out a legacy
not of homeruns
or amazing plays, but of pure,unfiltered entertainment.
Just think now, every timesomeone does some crazy dance
celebrationafter play or a home run
or even the Savannah bananas,that's Germany.
Schaefer's legacy. Nice.
Now, I just spent all this timetelling you
of all the crazy anticshe caused.
(35:35):
I just wanted to leave youwith this.
Although, like I said earlier,
he didn't havethe greatest stats in the game.
It is said and well knownthat he did have a very sound
baseball mind,like he was very switched on
for the game and playsand stuff like that.
Also, he did change his namefrom Germany to Liberty in 1917,
and you can probably guess why.
Yeah, most likely. Would be one.
(35:56):
Dubbed up on the. Great Wall.
In reference to your singingof the song before.
Take Me to the ball. Yep.
Yep. Sung by.
But, come on, man, Gene Kelly
or Frank Sinatra, one of them,this Gundotra song. It.
This guy inspired the movie.
All right, take me out tothe ballpark. The ball game.
(36:18):
Germany.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Many shows that inspiredthe movie.
Take me out to the ball game.
Yeah I didn't include that.I left that. One.
Field of dreamsis a baseball movie right.
Yes yes.
Yes. Build itand they will come.
Yeah I can rememberif it was baseball or football.
It's baseball.
Remember watching, angelsin the outfield?
That's a good one.That's a really good one.
Christopher Lloyd. Yeah.Great movie.
What's the one with the kid?
Falls on his arm and gets, like,a super rocket arm sandlot.
(36:42):
No, it's like a real young kid.
He's like 9 or 10,
and he's got these strong, like,a hundred miles an hour.
Oh, I don't remember.
And then it's the one was like,
pitches got a bigbut was because he then loses.
He, he falls on his armand loses the ability to pitch.
Like Mike.
Kirby.
No, no that's baseballI mean basketball basketball.
One. Thought he would bite.
So he loses the abilityto pitch.
(37:03):
And this is like the playoffgame and he's pitching.
So he's got to do all thesetrick plays.
Like he's got the bag of flour.
Well the first baseballhas the ball.
And it's the one where he's likepeaches got a big.
But that's where that comes fromI don't know what that was.
Nobody in this room has an ideawhat you talked about.
The movie is calledrookie of the year.
I believe that tells the storyof Henry Rowan. God.
Or a young boy
who, after
breaking his arm, discoversthat he can throw 100mph.
(37:25):
He got signedfor the Chicago Cubs
and becomes a pitchingsensation.
Oh. Cool.
The baseball moviesThe Last Man, The Human Tornado
let me quickly paint a picture
of the mind of this man, RubeWaddell.
That's a good name.
I you've never met a well,I've never heard of a bad Rube.
Imagine.
(37:47):
You're in apacked baseball stadium in 1904.
Picture yourselfwatching a baseball game. Yeah.
Your star pitcher
has just struck out two batterswith absolute precision.
The crowd is roaring. And.
The third batter steps up.
Just then the firetruckson rails in the distance.
You look in the directionof this.
And then backto the pitcher's mound.
But there's no pitcher.
(38:07):
He's off gloves in the air,sprinting towards the fence
and hopping over the fenceto chase the firetruck
down the streetlike a golden retriever.
After a squeaky toy.
Okay. Is he a firefighter?
No. Oh.
George Edward Rube Waddellwas born in 1876, in rural
Pennsylvania, one of six kidsin a farming family.
(38:29):
And from the get go,he was a little different.
Seems it there's a story thatwhen he was three years old,
he just walked off one day
it was either from his houseor from a picnic.
Family had no ideawhere he went.
Days later,
they find him
playing with the firemenat the local firehouse, cool
the farm, and apparentlyjust adopted him like a pet,
(38:50):
and they were justlooking after him.
This kid showed up.
Oh, well, he lives here now.
Yeah. He justhe just lived with the firemen
for a couple of days.
He was a he's he was lefthanded and strengthened
his arm as a childthrowing rocks at birds.
He didn't go to schoolvery often.
Instead, as a youngster, workedin mining and drilling sites.
(39:11):
Right.
As he'sa Fifo worker. Yeah. Black lung.
Look,
now, don't get confused.
Rube Waddell was a freakishlytalented pitcher.
And he threw heat.
Right I.
Don't there's no like numbers ornot I don't think the.
(39:31):
Numbers. Yeah.
He made his major leaguedebut in 1897.
And by the early 1900she was the strikeout king.
In 1904 he struck out $349in a single season, a record
that stood in the AmericanLeague for over 60 years.
And it remains sixthon the modern day list. Wow.
(39:52):
This was unheard of at the time.
Reubenled the league in strikeouts
for six yearsin a row from 1902.
I think it was 1907.
At one point he struck out16 batters in a game
three times in one month. Wow.
That's impressive.
But this brilliance camewith a catch.
(40:14):
Much like the otherswe've looked at so far.
Rube was unpredictable.
Apart from chasingfiretrucks down the street,
some of his other anticsincluded showing up drunk
or just not showing up at all.
And one time he leftthe man mid-game to go fishing.
Just just decidedthat he had enough.
(40:34):
You know what?
I wanted to go fishing. Oh, go.Grab a salmon. Yep.
So you just likewhen he was three in the off
season, he would disappearfor months at a time.
Eventually, it was discoveredthat he had joined a circus.
And what was he doingin the circus?
He was in a tank wrestlingalligators.
You just grab a guy.
This is the off season.
(40:54):
That's crazy behavior.
Rube ended up playing for ConnieMack's Philadelphia Athletics.
Is that the same athleticsthat became these ones?
I believe it, it is.
Yeah, I is, yeah.
That'swhy I got you to get that.
And Mack was a manwho looked like a bank manager.
You say he like managerswear the uniform? Yes.
(41:16):
Connie Mack was a black.
He would wear, like,a business shirt and tie.
Oh, yeah.
So you're like.
He looked like a bank manager,
and he managedlike a kindergarten teacher.
He spent years trying to controlRube.
To be fair, he had some success.
This is when he got,what, the six years
in a row type of thing?Yeah. What?
He tried hiringteammates to babysit him.
He fired him for missing games.
(41:37):
He even tried bribe, bribingbribing Rube to stay sober
during the season.
It sort of workeduntil someone offered
Rube a drink and he said, sorry,I can't.
I'm on the wagon till October,but I'll see you then.
That was Ruth's charm.
He wasn't nasty.
He was just off in his ownworld.
He'd get distracted by shinyobjects, puppies and parades
(42:00):
and the fans.
They kind of caught on to howeasily wants to distract Rube.
Fans would start shaking keysin the stands, which worked.
He could.
You could use. It. Yeah.
He would get distracted by it.
They would bring puppiesto the game
and wave them in the air,and Rube would miss innings
because he was in the dugoutplaying with said puppy.
(42:21):
Okay, this guy,I couldn't be on the team. No.
There was one crazy yearRube had let me go over.
What happened inthat year was 1903.
It started with roofing fans
sleeping in a firehousein Camden, new Jersey,
and then the year ended with himtending a bar in a saloon
in Wheeling, West Virginia.
(42:42):
In between.
Like what happened in betweenboy striping?
Well, he won 22 gamesfor the Philadelphia Athletics.
Nighttwo of the nation in a melodrama
melodramacalled The Stain of Guilt,
courted, married and becameseparated from May when Skinner
of Leon, Massachusetts.
Skinner.
Saved a woman from drowning,
(43:02):
accidentallyshot a friend through the hand,
and was bitten by a lion.
She's.
That's a yes.That's the big. Yeah. Big.
Yeah. That isthat's a busy year.
You got some stuff done, Rube?
Again, let me reiteratehow brilliant this mad man was
when he was on.
He was on, he oncehad an immaculate innings.
(43:23):
That is ninepitches, nine strikes.
That's impressive.
That's an immaculate innings.It doesn't happen often. Yeah.
Nine pitches, nine strikes.
He'd also call outhis pitches to the bat.
Just kind of like I think.
Did Babe Ruth pitch?
No. Babe Ruth, not bad boys,but he would.
Point it hit it.
But but he was doing thispitching
(43:44):
right to be like,I'm going to throw this
and then strike him out. Yeah.
He would also sometimes callhe's in field or is outfield in
and make them sit in the dugoutthen strike the batter.
So I have no fielders out there.
It just be bats.
That's ball Z.
Fact checka Sean would like to jump in.
That was during exhibitiongames.
Major League Baseball actuallyprohibits you from playing with
(44:07):
any less than ninemembers on the field. However,
he still did it.
He actually
did it in a league game once
he got them to sit downon the field
and and and struckand struck him out.
Can you imagine being the batterfor that moment?
It just like.
I've just got to hit it.
I've just all I.
Have to do is bunt itand we fine.
Yeah.
In a league,in a league game in Detroit,
Waddell actuallyhad his outfielders come in
(44:28):
close and sit down on the grassto watch him
strike out the other side,which he did.
Amazing. It's so good.
I love that. One time it didn't
it nearly didn't workin an exhibition game.
He sent everybody off.
He took the field alonewith his catcher, Doc Powers.
Right now, for the last threeinnings with two out,
with two,with two out in the ninth.
(44:50):
Powers accidentally dropped
the third strike, allowingthe batter to run to first base
with the next two hitterssimply blocked.
Pop Flies pop flies that felljust behind the pitching mound.
Despite running himself ragged,
Waddell subsequentlydid strike out the last man
he had to run around and fieldby himself, but he still did it.
An absolute madman.
(45:10):
That is actually waymore impressive
than anything elseI've heard tonight. Yeah.
At the end of his career,started in 1905,
his drinkingproblem caught up with him
and he was mad with injuriesto 1905 and 1906.
Rube went througha bunch of benching,
firings,three hirings and firings.
Again, ultimately,Rube had a tragic end as well.
(45:31):
Yeah, no.
Once again, his good natured,hard showed went wild, helping
rescue people from a floodin Hickman, Kentucky.
He caught pneumonia.
Which led to tuberculosis.
And he never recovered.
He died in 1914at just 37 years old.
Cheese.
And in 1946,long after he'd passed rave,
(45:51):
Waddell was inductedinto the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Rightfully so.
And that boy is what I'd liketo call the Four Horsemen.
Of the ice pocalypse.
Oh yeah, of golden era baseball.
Yeah,it seems like it solid, man.
It sounds like baseball games.
These days were boringcompared to that.
(46:12):
It's all stats and averagesand fitness.
Yeah.
So Shohei Ohtani is nevertelling his field to come in.
This is this is. Why I sit down.Let me.
This is why this amountof bananas I think that's why.
They exist. Yeah. Doing well.
You know they're making ita show.
It's fun to just sit andwatch it for like ten minutes.
But I imagine going to an actualgame would be very fun.
(46:32):
Yeah. Yeah.
Savannah, bananas don't actuallyhave to win every game too.
It's not the garlictrotters. It's not where.
Oh no, no, there's.And it's actual.
That's competitive.They're genuinely good.
Yeah, they're really good.It's like Lady Gazelle.
I've seen multiple videosof an outfielder
back flippingand then catching the ball.
Oh like wall back flippingcatch the ball. I saw. A guy.
There's a guy who plays onstilts.
(46:52):
Yeah. Really?Yeah. He's got. Yeah.
He's three.
Three meters tall
and I've seen himsquatting into base.
That's awesome.
He plays once, andthen they get out of the dugout.
I've seen a video wherehe's like,
he almost turned himself upsidedown. The climb out.
Okay, banana tiles is comingnext week.
Hey, strike zone is the same.
It's just like, oh, yeah.
(47:14):
Yeah,I have to pitch up two after us.
Yeah. Stand like this.
Yeah. That the still to play.
It also pitches.
Oh my God that's incredible.
Yeah that's great I.
Need to watch more bananacontent. Yeah.
So banana like I said
that's Germany Schaefer'slike I say
that kind of style of play.
Like that'swhat he was all about right.
(47:35):
Well great. Great at boy.
I really I really enjoyed it.I never heard of any of them.
No, that was the plan.
I think I'd heardRiverdale's name before.
But I heard the name.Yeah, yeah, that's a good one.
Yeah, but yeah, apparentlyjust an absolute electric pitch.
Just when he was. There,when he was there.
He was the.
What do you do now?
Someone didn't have a puppyin the in the bleachers
(47:56):
jingling rattle.
Get distracted by trees. Oh.
All right. Classic whimsical.
All right.
Great. Out, boy. Great episode.
We will be backin another fortnight
with more Banana Tales.With more, but not enough.
Probably not morebanana tales. Good night.
Ticket.
Good night.
(48:18):
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