Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the soccer/football urban legends featured so far.

SOCCER/FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND: Bobby Charlton and Dennis Viollet switched seats with Tommy Taylor and David Pegg right before the “Munich air disaster”.

Whenever a famous tragic crash occurs, whether it be a boat sinking or a plane crashing, you’ll begin to hear stories of “Person X was almost on that boat/plane but he/she couldn’t go at the last minute.”

For instance, Waylon Jennings was the only person who gave up a spot on the plane that later crashed, killing Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper. However, over the years, many a story has been told about someone who was meant to be on the flight but who gave up their seat.

Well, in the case of the great Munich Air Disaster of 1958, there really was a case like that.
Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the soccer/football urban legends featured so far.

SOCCER/FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND: Stephen Ireland faked a death of a grandmother to get out of his international duties with Team Ireland.

Stephen Ireland is…how should we say this?….controversial.

The 26-year-old Irish midfielder currently plays for Ashton Villa in the Premier League (he was the Fans Player of the Team in 2012) and also used to play for the Irish National Team.

How he ended up off the team was quite a story.
Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the soccer/football urban legends featured so far.

SOCCER/FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND: William Dean’s nickname “Dixie” came from his dark skin.

William “Dixie” Dean was one of the most prolific goal scorers in English League history, with an astounding 379 goals in 438 English League games from 1923-1939, with the vast majority of them coming for Everton, where Dean spent just shy of 400 games.

If you take a look at Dean, you might notice that his complexion is fairly dark…

It is due to his dark complexion and his hair that people took to calling him “Dixie,” as he looked (according to many English folks at the time, who likely did not know any better) like an African-American from the Southern United States.

It’s a pretty darn racist nickname, and Dean haaaaaated it.

However, while it IS clear that he WAS known as “Dixie” because for the fairly racist reason that he reminded people of Southern American blacks, the interesting thing is that he did not get the name the way you would think. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the baseball urban legends featured so far.

BASEBALL URBAN LEGEND: While he was on the Pittsburgh Pirates, pitcher Joel Hanrahan won a game on July 9, 2009…for the Washington Nationals!

Recently, the Boston Red Sox acquired closer Joel Hanrahan from the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates acquired him from the Washington Nationals in 2009 (along with outfielder Lastings Milledge) for outfielder Nyjer Morgan and relief pitcher Sean Burnett.

At the time, Hanrahan had an 0-3 record on the season.

On July 9, 2009, Hanrahan collected his first win of the season.

The only problem was that the Pirates had the day off!

Read on to see how it happened!
Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the baseball urban legends featured so far.

BASEBALL URBAN LEGEND: Tommy John once made three errors on a single play.

Tommy John might be the only baseball player who is known better for a surgery performed on him than his actual career, which is a darn shame, because John had a very good career – he has the sixth-most victories of any pitcher not in the Hall of Fame (“just” 11 shy of 300 – the quotes is because it was remarkable he stuck around long enough to get the 288 in the first place!).

Still, Tommy John is best known for an injury he suffered in the middle of the 1974 season while pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers (for whom he was 13-3 on the year).

John tore a ligament in his throwing elbow. Such an injury (which is fairly common in pitchers, as the stress of throwing pitches is quite taxing on the elbow ligaments) would essentially ruin a pitcher’s career. However, in John’s case, a surgery was performed taking a tendon from John’s right forearm and using it to replace the damaged ligament in his elbow. After skipping the 1975 season to rehab the arm, John was back in 1976 pitching as usual.

He went on to make the All-Star Team three more times (he also had made the All-Star Team in 1968 when with the Chicago White Sox).

John spent most of his later years in the Majors (he ended up winning more games AFTER the surgery than he did BEFORE) pitching for the New York Yankees.

John pitched for the Yankees until 1989, when he had clearly lost it, at a remarkable 46 years of age. Just the fact that he was a capable pitcher for the Yankees in the mid-to-late 80s is remarkable for a pitcher in his mid-40s.

However, the story we’re discussing today is when John had a slightly less capable moment on the diamond.

John induced a number of ground ball outs, and as a result (or perhaps as a necessity) he was a good fielding pitcher.

But in a game in New York against the Milwaukee Brewers in late July of 1988, John had one of the most ignominious moments in baseball history.
Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the baseball urban legends featured so far.

BASEBALL URBAN LEGEND: A Cubs outfielder misplayed a ball in the outfield due to falling into an exposed manhole!

In the 1970s, former Cubs pitcher Warren Hacker recalled a game the Cubs played against the Dodgers in the mid-50s (Hacker’s recollection was collected in a few places after first appearing in Chicago Today)…

We lost a lot of close games in those days because the Cubs weren’t scoring a lot of runs. But this one took the prize. I’m pitching one day against Brooklyn in the old Ebbets Field and we’re ahead, 2-0, in the bottom of the ninth.

They got the bases loaded, two out. Then somebody hits this fly to right-center, and over goes [Eddie] Miksis, who was our centerfielder. But he falls into a hole. Really, there was a manhole out there and the groundskeeper forgot to put the top on it. Miksis falls right through, three runs score, and we lose, 3-2.

I looked out there and thought a midget was playing centerfield.

At 3.8 runs a game, the Cubs WERE well under the league average of 4.25 runs per game in 1956, but otherwise, was that story correct?
Read the rest of this entry »

This is the latest in a series of examinations of urban legends related to golf and whether they are true or false.

GOLF URBAN LEGEND: The word “stymie” originated as a golf term.

We’re used to sporting terms and phrases being adapted to everyday usage, but one of the oddest examples that I can think of is the word stymie, which was coined as a golf term!
Read the rest of this entry »

This is the latest in a series of examinations of urban legends related to golf and whether they are true or false.

GOLF URBAN LEGEND: Bobby Jones used to play golf only in the summer while he practiced law in the winter.

Bobby Jones, simply put, was one of the greatest golfers in the history of the game.

In many ways, Jones was the Tiger Woods of his day, as he began dominating the sport of golf when he was in his early 20s.

Jones completed a “Grand Slam” of winning the four major golf tournaments of the calendar year (this was back when the amateur championships were considered “major”).

He never became a professional golfer, as Jones had a law degree so he worked as a lawyer during the year, as well.

He basically retired from golf at the age of 28, only competing in the tournament he co-found, the prestigious Masters, which he helped design.

Much has been written about the greatness of Jones and the fact that he dominated while being, in effect, only a part-time golfer.

However, the amount of time he devoted to golf (or rather, the lack of time) has been overstated over the years.
Read the rest of this entry »

This is the latest in a series of examinations of urban legends related to golf and whether they are true or false.

GOLF URBAN LEGEND: Howard Hughes used golf to work out an argument with Howard Hawks.

The eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes was born to a rich family.

The young Hughes decided to make his own fortune (beginning, of course, with his family fortune backing him) by moving from Texas (where his family built a fortune on the oil business) to Los Angeles to make movies.

One of his first big successes was the World War I war film, Hell’s Angels, in 1930 (co-starring the sultry Jean Harlow)…

Well, another hit of 1930 was The Dawn Patrol…

a World War I war film directed and co-written by the legendary film director Howard Hawks…

Hughes felt that The Dawn Patrol ripped off elements from his film, so he sued Howard Hawks.

While the lawsuit was going on, Hughes decided to make a film based on the gangster, Al Capone. The perfect director for this film, Hughes determined, was Howard Hawks!!

Hughes had to think of a way to convince Hawks to do the film. That’s when Hughes came upon an idea – he and Hawks shared an interest in the game of golf – thus, an idea was born!
Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the baseball urban legends featured so far.

BASEBALL URBAN LEGEND: Wade Boggs once drank 64 cans of Miller Lite on a cross-country flight (in the alternative, Wade Boggs drank over 50 cans of Miller Lite).

Wade Boggs was one of the best third baseman in Major League Baseball history and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005.

Boggs also happened to be quite a drinker.

Boggs played for the New York Yankees for a number of years (even winning the World Series with the Yankees in 1996)…

While there he played with pitcher Jeff Nelson for a couple of seasons…

Nelson was on a radio show in 2004 when he made some interesting claims about Boggs’ drinking habits…

Nelson: Oh, I’d say, on a typical road trip, east coast to west coast, say a road game to Seattle……Wade would drink anywhere between 50 and 60 beers.

Show’s Host: NO WAY!! 50 or 60 beers. That is impossible.

Nelson: No, I know…I know how crazy that sounds, and I wouldn’t believe it myself unless I saw him do it…..numerous times. And he drank nothing but Miller Lite.

Host: How in the hell did he have time to drink that many beers. For God’s sake, how many times did he have to go to the bathroom?

Nelson: I’m not kidding you Steve. Seriously. Wade was the kind of guy who was always the first one at the club house. So he’d get to the clubhouse, and he’d bring a six pack with him. He’d be there drinking a beer when someone showed up, and as we were all packing our stuff up out of our lockers and getting our bags ready for the trip, Wade would sit there and drink that whole six pack.

Now, at the time, we were flying out of New Jersey, so it was somewhat of a drive from Yankee stadium to the airport in New Jersey. Wade would drink another couple of beers on the bus to the airport. At the time, we were flying this older airplane, it couldn’t make it across the country without refueling, and it wasn’t the fastest airplane in the sky. So we would stop in North Dakota or something. Wade would drink about a half rack between New Jersey and North Dakota, and it would take about a half-hour to an hour to refuel once we got there, so he’d have a few more beers while we were grounded in North Dakota.

Once we got back up in the air, Wade would drink another 10, 11, 12 beers on the way out to the west coast. The whole flight from coast to coast ususally took us well over 7 hours. We’d touch down at Sea-Tac, hop on the bus headed to the Kingdome, and Wade would have another beer or two on the bus. Then, all of us would get to the Kingdome and unpack our bags and sit around and BS with eachother, and Wade would have a beer in his hand the entire time. He was always one of the last people to leave the club house too. So I’d say that all in all, he drank over 50 beers on the trip, and this wasn’t just an isolated incident, he did that almost every time.

Boggs finished his career on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays…

and while there, he played with Paul Sorrento…

who also had played with Nelson in Seattle.

So Nelson called up Sorrento to verify his tale…

Nelson: Yeah, alright Paul, I need you to answer one question for me, truthfully now….How many beers would Wade Boggs drink on an east coast to west coast road trip?

Sorrento: Oh, jeez, (exhaling like a flat tire) I don’t know, like 70.

Boggs was asked about the story soon after his election in 2005, and he denied it. He admitted that he would drink a lot of beers, but not nearly that many.

So let’s take a look into seeing if this story is legit…
Read the rest of this entry »