This is the twelfth in a series of examinations of baseball-related legends and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of all the previous baseball legends.

Let’s begin!

BASEBALL LEGEND: Bill Richardson was drafted by a Major League baseball team.

STATUS: False

Bill Richardson is the current Governor of the state of New Mexico, and also recently made the news when he was President Barack Obama’s first pick for the Cabinet position of Commerce Secretary. Earlier this year, though, Governor Richardson withdrew his name from contention.

Richardson was an excellent pitcher during college, and for years, his biographies have included the information that he was drafted by a Major League team in the late 1960s, while attending Tufts University, alternately given as the Kansas City Athletics or the Chicago Cubs…

However, this is not true.

The story boiled down to a program for the Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod amateur baseball league, which is a summer league where prospects play during the summer (so Richardson certainly WAS a prospect at the time) The program included “Drafted by K.C.” for Richardson.

Richardson has said, “When I saw that program in 1967, I was convinced I was drafted…And it stayed with me all these years.”

In 2005, the Albuquerque Journal broke the story that Richardson was never actually drafted, which Richardson then admitted.

BASEBALL LEGEND: The Pittsburgh Pirates took their team name from “pirating” a player from another team.

STATUS: True

While there were a few professional teams in the Pittsburgh area since the mid-1870s, the first real professional team in the area was the team that ended up becoming a founding member of the American Association in 1882. The team played in Allegheny City, which was then an independent city from Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh ended up absorbing it into Pittsburgh proper in 1907). The team, then, was known as Allegheny, their city name.

They soon came to be known as the Alleghenys.

In 1887, the team left the American Association and joined the National League. At this time, they officially changed their name to the Pittsburgh Alleghenys (even though Allegheny City was still technically separate).

Dennis McKnight bought the team around this time.

In 1890, a new baseball league opened up, and they had a Pittsburgh team, as well, the Pittsburgh Burghers. This new team essentially pirated away all of McKnight’s best players. After the worst season in Pittsburgh history in 1890 (finishing 23-113), McKnight was forced to abandon his team back to the National League.

McKnight, though, managed to find his way on to the Burghers, as a minority owner. He then had the Burghers purchase the now owner-less Allegheny franchise and merged both teams into the new National League team, still known as the Pittsburgh Alleghenys. So within a year, McKnight got back his team AND all of the players he had lost the previous year. McKnight did not mess around.

Starting his first year back in the National League, McKnight figured that if he could be “stolen” from, he would do the same with other teams, and picked up some players from the Philadelphia Athletics of the American Association.

The Athletics were outraged, and deemed McKnight’s actions “piratical.”

To mock their accusations, McKnight changed the name of the team for the next season. Instead of the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, they would now (and forever, I suppose) be known as the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And that’s what they’re still called today, over a hundred years later!

BASEBALL LEGEND: An organist was once ejected from a game by an umpire.

STATUS: True

Wilbur Snapp was the organist for the Philadelphia Phillies’ minor league farm team, the Clearwater Phillies, for over two decades until they went to recorded music beginning in the 1997 season. He also played the organ for Phillies spring training games in Florida. Snapp had taught himself how to play the organ when he was in his mid-30s and it soon became his passion.

In 1985, during a game, first base umpire Kevin O’Connor (who would go on to have a 10-year-career umpiring in he Major Leagues, and is currently one of 11 Umpire Supervisors who observe umpires to make sure they’re up to snuff) made a seemingly bad call at first base that resulted in a Phillies double play.

As an act of protest, Snapp played “Three Blind Mice” on his organ.

O’Connor was having none of it, so he pointed to Snapp in the organ booth and ejected him.

Snapp spent the rest of the game in the stadium making mice balloon animals for fans.

Snapp was the only ejection O’Connor ever made in his umpiring career!

Snapp passed away in 2003 at the age of 83.

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Chicago Cubs, Clearwater Phillies, Cotuit Kettleers, Dennis McKnight, Governor, Kansas City Athletics, Kevin O'Connor, Philadelphia Athletics, Pittsbugh Alleghenys, Pittsburgh Pirates, Tufts University, Wilburr Snapp