Let’s begin!

OLYMPIC LEGEND: Of the first two finishers of the 1904 Olympic Marathon, one nearly died due to taking drugs designed to help him win the competition - and that’s the one who DIDN’T get disqualified.

STATUS: True

In a sports world that has seen one Olympic skater attempt to have another skater (from her own country) crippled before the Olympics and seen countless star athletes revealed to have used some form of performance-enhancing drugs (like steroids), I suppose the events of the 1904 Olympic Marathon would not be that surprising. However, the sheer amount of scandal packed into one race is still quite notable, and one can only imagine the attention such a race would have received in the modern age of the 24 hour news cycle.

Of the first two men to cross the finish line in the 1904 Marathon, Thomas Hicks nearly died from using his era’s equivalent of “performance-enhancing drugs,” and he was the one who WASN’T disqualified. Fred Lorz’s journey to the finish line was even stranger than that!

To say that the conditions for the 1904 marathon in St. Louis were not ideal would be severely understating the situation. The terrain on that late August day involved a muddy course and a series of about eight hills for the 40 kilometer race (not to mention the amount of motor cars kicking up worlds of dust and pollution as the runners raced). As inhospitable as the terrain was, the most dangerous aspect of the race was the heat. The race began at 3pm with the weather nearing 90 degrees Fahrenheit and the sun burning down on the contestants (I have read conflicting reports on the humidity- I lean towards believing those that said that the humidity was not that bad that day). Adding to the heat factor was the fact that hydration for all racers were only available at the 6 mile marker and the 12 mile marker - if a racer were to get other hydration, he would have to receive it from someone outside of the race. Unsurprisingly, then, the racer who ended up taking the race had a considerable amount of assistance from the sidelines (of course, what was seen as assistance at the time nearly killed the man!).

Of the 32 runners who started the race, a shocking eighteen failed to finish it!

One of the men who failed to finish, William Garcia of California, was nearly the first Olympic casualty! He had swallowed so much dust kicked up from the automobiles passing by that his esophagus was lined with dust and his stomach was hemorrhaging from all the dust that had entered it! It seems pretty clear that had it not been for the automobiles passing by, this race would have ended a lot sooner than it ended up finishing (and with a lot more runners finishing).

Due to the sheer amount of runners who failed to finish, an eccentric runner, Felix Carbajal, finished fourth in the race even after taking a BREAK during the middle of the race! Carbajal, a Cuban, had traveled a great distance to compete in the St. Louis Olympics, begging for money along the way to make it to Missouri. He raced in his regular street clothes (some friends cut his pants so that he at least could run in an approximation of shorts), as that was all that he had brought with him. He had not eaten in nearly two days, so when he saw an opportunity to grab some fruit along the way, he did so. He was leading the race at the time, but he developed severe stomach cramps from the food and had to take a break from the race. Still, due to the problems developed by the other racers, he still managed to recover in time to finish fourth.

Another racer, Len Tau of South Africa, was actually chased by a dog!!! In his attempt to avoid the dog, Tau ended up running an entire mile off course! He amazingly still came in ninth (like I said, this was a hard race for everyone).

The dehydration problem was what led to John Lorz quitting the race about 9 miles in. He could go no further. He rode in a car to meet the other racers at the finish line. However, after about 19 miles, the car he was in broke down. Lorz had recovered by this point, so he figured it would be a good laugh to re-enter the race. He did so at the 19 mile mark and quickly passed the leader at the time, Thomas Hicks. Lorz crossed the finish line 3 hours and thirteen minutes after the race had begun. Lorz treated it as a joke the entire time (although, admittedly, he did go along with the adulation, he just did not claim that he had won or deny what he had done), right up until when First Lady Alice Roosevelt (daughter of Theodore Roosevelt) tried to present him with a floral wreath! By this time, outraged Olympic officials had figured out that Lorz had not finished the entire race (something Lorz freely admitted when asked) and disqualified him.

How Lorz was handled following the race was interesting. James Sullivan, the head of the 1904 Olympics, was so outraged that he had Lorz banned from amateur athletic competition for LIFE! Luckily for Lorz, a few months later, cooler heads prevailed and it was agreed that Lorz legitimately was joking (he had a reputation as a prankster, which certainly helped him in this regard) and not actually trying to cheat. This worked out quite well for Lorz, as he would go on to win the 1905 Boston Marathon!

So this left the winner, Thomas Hicks, born in England but racing for the United States (only the second Olympian to win a medal for a country other than the one they were born in). Hicks got off to a good start, but by the 17th mile, he was pretty much just walking (luckily for him, so was everyone else). As opposed to the other runners, though, Hicks had some help on the sidelines, in the persons of his “support crew,” Hugh McGrath and Charles Lucas. At roughly the 19th mile marker (maybe a bit earlier), Lucas and McGrath administered 1/60 grain of sulphate of strychnine within a raw egg (as strychnine is incredibly bitter to eat on its own). Can you even imagine eating raw eggs on the 19th mile of a marathon in 90 degree heat, with the sun burning down on you? Strychnine, meanwhile, has been used as a rat poison for years, but it also DOES work as a stimulant for the central nervous system - so long as it is taken in small doses (it has ceased to be used for this purposes as, quite naturally enough, other medicines that were NOT poisons were developed to use as stimulants).

Soon after this, Lorz raced by Hicks and he was distraught, thinking he had lost the race. His handlers informed him that Lorz clearly was going to be disqualified, so they compelled Hicks to continue, as he had a good mile lead on the next runner. So they gave him another 1/60 grain of sulphate of strychnine along with two more eggs and some brandy (yes, drinking alcohol on a hot day while dehydrated in a marathon while also ingesting raw eggs and rat poison - some support crew Hicks had!).

Finally, Lucas and McGrath actually gave Hicks a warm sponge bath right there on the course. The last mile or so included a steep hill, but Hicks managed to get over it and while he attempted to jog down it, he couldn’t do much more than walk a little faster than normal. He finally crossed the finish line at 3 hours and 28 minutes - the longest finishing time in Olympic Marathon history (a dubious record that likely will never be broken). Hicks lost an astonishing TEN pounds on his race. He could barely move after the race and never competed in a marathon again. Another dose of strychnine quite literally might have killed him, so he was lucky he won when he did. There were attempts at protests over Hicks’ chemical aids, but James Sullivan ultimately turned them all down.

Here Hicks is with his “helpers”…

and here he being driven away after the race - look how awful his face looks! It’s like he is literally near death!

One last little curiosity occurred when Arthur Corey finished second at 3 hours and 34 minutes. Corey was a Frenchman, but since he did not have the right papers, he was listed as an American, which is what he is still officially listed as to this day.

Thanks to Charles Lucas, who provided much of the details about the race in his memoirs from a century ago (it is interesting to read Lucas’ work, as he basically seems to have no problem with the idea that Hicks was not the most talented of the runners and that he won because of Lucas’ chemical assistance).

OLYMPIC LEGEND: The BBC had to ask for their payment for the broadcast rights to the 1948 Olympics to not be cashed due to money problems.

STATUS: I’m Going With False

Nowadays, the broadcasting rights to the Olympics have reached such a high cost that the networks who air the games often don’t even make any money off of the games directly (their hope is if they don’t MAKE money, at least come close enough that they can use the games to hype their other properties - one of the biggest advantages of televised sports to the networks is the ability to use it to plug their other shows).

But in 1948, the first time the games were ever broadcasted over the television airwaves to households across the country (in 1936, for the Berlin Games, they held special screenings of the games at special halls, which were technically television broadcasts), the cost was a small one.

The British Broadcasting Company paid 1,000 guineas (which is 1,050 pounds and about 3,000 dollars in 1958) for the right to air the London Games on TV in England.

In 2008, the British newspaper The Independent did a story about England searching for sponsors for the 2012 Olympics and featured a timeline on the history of marketing and the Olympics. It stated:

1948 London

TV rights to the Games sold for first time. BBC bids 1,000 guineas but its cheque is not banked after it pleads poverty.

It IS true that the check was never cashed, but it was not because the BBC pled poverty (even in 1948, 1,000 guineas was not a TON of money to the BBC), but it was the decision of the British Olympic Association, not the BBC, to not cash the check.

The Association did not even want to be paid at ALL for the television rights, as they felt that it undercut the Amateur nature of the Games, particularly in 1948, when many people were still on food rations following the War. But the London Organizing Committee knew that they needed to fund the games somehow, and with the mood of the day being so bleak, they figured ticket sales alone would not cut it, so they looked for new ways of making money, and the TV rights was something they came up with.

However, the games were SO stripped down that they actually DID end up covering their costs just with ticket sales. Therefore, they did not need the BBC’s money, so they never cashed the check.

So it was the Association’s decision, not because the BBC was claiming poverty.

OLYMPIC LEGEND: An Olympian won two Silver Medals in Women’s Equestrian despite not being able to use her legs!

STATUS: True

Lis Hartel passed away in Feburary of last year at the age of 87.

Hartel was a two-time Silver Medal winner at the 1952 and the 1956 Olympic Games. An equestrian, her two medals came in Individual Dressage (Dressage, which rhymes with massage, is an event where the rider makes his/her horse perform specific tasks to demonstrate your control of the animal, like turns, making the animal speed up and slow down, etc.).

Her she is at the 1952 games…

What is particularly notable about Hartel (besides being a two-time Olympic medalist, which is pretty darn notable in and of itself) is that she performed the events without the use of her legs below the knees!!

In the early 1940s, when Hartel was 23 years old and pregnant, she contracted polio. She managed to give birth to her child but she was left pretty much completely paralyzed. After years of physical therapy, she regained the use of most of her body, save her legs below the knees.

During her therapy, she began to ride horses and she soon trained herself to be able to control the horse without the use of her legs.

Eventually, at the age of 31, riding her horse Jubilee, Hartel was able to medal at the games. She had to be assisted in mounting and dismounting her horse (and with walking) but she still managed to control her horse enough to win a Silver Medal. Then repeated the feat in 1956!!

Hartel naturally became quite a celebrity in her native Denmark, leading to a boom in interest in horseback riding, as well as being influential in the use of horses in physical therapy. There is a therapeutic horse riding school in Holland named after her.

Isn’t that just a remarkable example of the human spirit?

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

-Brian Cronin

Let’s begin!

FOOTBALL LEGEND: NBC sent an employee running on to the field to delay the 1958 National Football League Championship because they had lost the TV signal.

STATUS: I’m Going With True

I’ve already written in the past about the great influence that the 1958 NFL Championship Game had on the future of professional football, but I’ll mention it again. The 1958 Championship pitted the Baltimore Colts against the New York Giants in Yankee Stadium for a game that has since been dubbed “the Greatest Game Ever Played.” It was the first, and remains the ONLY, NFL title game (including all Super Bowls) to ever end in overtime. In fact, it was the first NFL game period to ever end in overtime. It came about at a time when the American public were primed to become invested in professional football, and the game served as a sign that they were now “all in.” Gone were the years of poorly attended games - the league would never average less than 40,000 a game again and within three years public demand caused the league to expand from 12-game seasons to 14-game seasons.

Perhaps even more important was how pro football was adopted by the media. Sports Illustrated had barely given any coverage to the league, but soon began covering them regularly. Soon, incoming commissioner Pete Rozelle would began to control the media angle of the sport and help to build a multi-media sporting empire. He founded NFL Films and began to work out national television contracts to replace smaller, local TV deals. Eventually, these plans would lead to shows like Monday Night Football and today an entire network devoted to the NFL. It all started that night, when a record 45 million people watched the Colts defeat the Giants.

So as important as the game was to the future success of the NFL, it was also very important to the network, NBC (National Broadcasting Company), who was televising the game. As stated, the NFL was clearly poised to become a ratings bonanza and NBC wanted to capitalize on that themselves. They were so invested in the coverage of the game that, when they lost their TV signal late in the game, NBC took very drastic measures to make sure that their viewers would not miss the ending of the game. Drastic measures that included actually causing an on the field delay in the middle of what turned out to be the game-winning drive!

Tied at 17-17 that cold December 28th day, the Colts took over at their own 20 yard line following the Giants’ offense stalling after getting the ball to start the overtime period. Through a bold mix of passing and rushing (passing on a cold day when any interception could lead to a dramatic loss), Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas slowly creeped his team all the way to the Giants’ eight-yard line, where he called timeout.

The problem was, the crowd of over 68,000 was SO raucous that the cable providing NBC’s TV signal, which was located in the end zone, was DISCONNECTED! It actually happened RIGHT before Unitas called timeout. So now 45 million Americans saw just snow. The folks at NBC were likely seeing stars. They were on the Giants’ eight-yard line! The game could be over on the very next play!! They frantically tried to locate the problem. Earlier that year, in an article about televised sports, the New York Times had asked a CBS producer what they would do in just such an occasion. The producer joked that they would likely send someone out on to the field acting like a drunk to delay the game.

Well, sure enough, that’s exactly what NBC did. NBC employee Stan Rotkiewicz, standing on the sidelines doing some statistician work (a former college football player, Rotkiewicz worked as a business manager for NBC News, but did stat work on game days), was the sacrificial lamb. After Unitas returned from the sidelines and the timeout, Rotkiewicz ran on to the field, running up and down the length of the field chased by a few police officers. Some more officers joined in from the other side of the field and soon Rotkiewicz was taken down and hauled off of the field (even at the time, when everyone considered him a drunk, most fans and commentators noted how well dressed the young man was).

The delay worked well, but NBC still missed the first play out of timeout. Luckily for them, it was just a short rush that gained only a yard. The signal returned in plenty of time to capture Unitas’ final two glorious plays - a six-yard pass to Jim Mutscheller (who, had he not slipped on some ice, might have won the game right there). Finally, he handed off to Alan Ameche for the game-winning one-yard rush for the touchdown, finishing the scoring at 23-17.

And all of America’s TV viewers had a chance to see it.

It’s worth noting that Johnny Unitas refused to believe Rotkiewicz was not actually a drunk. He felt that no one could be THAT good of an actor, and Rotkiewicz was swearing up a storm when the cops took him down.

With the New York Times report coupled with Rotkiewicz, you know, working for the network that needed to delay the game and all the sources over the years that have said that that is exactly what Rotkiewicz was doing, I’m willing to differ with the late, great Johnny U and say that this one is true.

Thanks to Mark Bowden’s excellent The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL and Tom Callahan’s great Unitas biography, Johnny U: The Life and Times of John Unitas for the information for the piece (Bowden about Rotkiewicz and Callahan about what Unitas felt about the moment).

FOOTBALL LEGEND: Ole Miss changed the speed limit around campus in honor of former Ole Miss great Archie Manning.

STATUS: True

College football stars often take on almost mythic proportions in the minds of the fans and students of their universities, with particularly beloved players still drawing crowds for speaking engagements decades after they last suited up for their alma mater. Archie Manning of the University of Mississippi is perhaps the prototypical example of an athlete who is practically worshiped at his old school.

Manning starred in all three seasons he played for Ole Miss, setting numerous records and winning countless awards (although never the Heisman Trophy).

He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

But perhaps his best (or at least his most unique) honor is that the speed limit at the campus at Ole Miss was forever changed to 18 miles per hour in honor of Manning’s #18.

That’s a pretty darn neat tribute, huh?

FOOTBALL LEGEND: The Chicago Cardinals and Chicago Tigers played a “death match” over the right to be the sole representative of Chicago in the NFL, with the loser folding.

STATUS: I’m Going With False

When the National Football League was formed in 1920 (for the first two years it was called the American Professional Football Association), it consisted almost entirely of teams from the Mid-West.

The original roster of teams were (some of these teams were not “official” members of the league as they did not chip in the league-founding fees, but they were treated as league members):

Akron Pros
Decatur Staleys
Buffalo All-Americans
Chicago Cardinals
Rock Island Independents
Dayton Triangles
Rochester Jeffersons
Canton Bulldogs
Detroit Heralds
Cleveland Tigers
Chicago Tigers
Hammond Pros
Columbus Panhandles
Muncie Flyers

That’s also the order that the teams finished in for the season.

Professional football had a rough time making a go at it in those early days. Attendance was low and college football was still seen as the “real” football in America.

As you might imagine, with things being as they were, having two professional football clubs in one city was tough, but that was what happened with the Chicago Cardinals and the Chicago Tigers sharing the Windy City.

The Cardinals were one of the better teams in the league (and, seeing as how they are still around today, albeit in Arizona, they were one of the more stable franchises).

The Tigers, on the other hand, were one of the worst. In fact, they were one of those “unofficial” teams I mentioned before.

So, as the story goes (here is one version, courtesy of the Cardinals’ own website and an article on Hall of Famer Paddy Driscoll)…

The Chicago Cardinals has just become one of the charter members of the American Professional Football Association in 1920, and owner Chris O’Brien wisely signed Driscoll—to a head-turning $300 per game—in an effort to improve box office appeal. At the time, the Cardinals faced competition for the fan dollar from the Chicago Tigers, and O’Brien challenged the Tigers to a “winner-take-all” game in which the loser would fold operations and relinquish all territorial rights to the victor. Behind the play of Driscoll, who scored the game’s only touchdown, the Cardinals won the game 6-3 and the Tigers soon closed up shop. The Cardinals were the primary franchise in the area, and Driscoll was the player responsible.

It’s a good story, and it is true that the Cardinals and the Tigers DID play a game against each other that season that the Cardinals won 6-3.

And the Tigers DID fold that season.

However, the very next season, the Decatur Staleys, one of the best teams in the league, moved to Chicago and became the Chicago Staleys and had the best record in the league in 1921! And O’Brien never challenged them.

So, it is pretty weird that the Cardinals would have a challenge game over the right of the Tigers to share their city and then just let another team move to the city the next year (and not just any team, but one of the best teams in the league). Heck, eventually it would be the CARDINALS who left Chicago decades later because the Staleys (who soon changed their name to the Bears) became such a dominant force in the city that the Cardinals felt like second-class citizens.

In addition, the Tigers DIDN”T fold after the game. They played two more league games, including one game against the Staleys and THEN left the league (playing one more game against a non-league opponent before folding entirely).

I don’t doubt that there was some sort of agreement that the Tigers would fold/leave Chicago after the 1920 season, but I don’t buy into the generally accepted story of a so-called “death match.” More likely the situation was a three-way match where the Staleys wanted in to Chicago, and since THREE teams certainly couldn’t share a city, one team had to go and that was the Tigers. After all, after the Tigers played the Staleys, they DID drop out of the league (and fold very soon after).

I wish records from the time were better so that we could know for sure what the deal was (note that there are no records of the game being a “death match”), but I’m pretty confident that the Tigers/Cardinals game was not the “death match” that it has often been described as being.

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

-Brian Cronin

Let’s begin!
BASEBALL LEGEND: The film Major League originally had a dramatic twist at the end involving the team’s owner.

STATUS: True

Very few movies about sports have been embraced by a sports team as much as the film Major League has been embraced by the Cleveland Indians. At the time of 1989 release of the film, the Indians were mired in one of the worst three decade patches of baseball that you could imagine. After finishing second in 1959, the Indians would not finish above third for twenty-nine of the next thirty seasons (a third place finish in 1968 would be the only break in the streak). Not only that, but when the American League went to two divisions in 1969, the Indians finished last or second-to-last in sixteen of the twenty-one seasons (up to and including 1989).

So when a film about an Indians team made up of scrappy underdogs who somehow make the playoffs after everyone counts them out, well, that’s just the sort of thing a fan base loves to embrace, and embrace them they did. And when the actual Indians team started actually winning in the 1990s (including five straight division titles and a trip to the World Series in 1995 AND 1997), it was almost as if the film blessed the Indians (sort of like Jo-Bu blessing Pedro Cerrano’s bat)! So even today, when the Indians are once again in pretty bad shape, you’ll see promotional giveaways of Major League-related memorabilia at Indians games.

However much of a sports film classic Major League is, there’s always been a pretty major plot hole in the film. First of, if Rachel Phelps (the owner of the team, who is trying to get out of her lease with the stadium so that she can move the team to Florida, so she plots to make the team so bad that it will fail to make the minimum attendance requirements within the lease) is so set against the team winning, why not just cut the good players or send them to the minors? Secondly, once it is evident that the team will meet the minimum requirements, why does Phelps (who is played by Margaret Whitton) continue to rally against the team when going to the playoffs will make her more money than not going to the playoffs?

Well, screenwriter David S. Ward had a very good explanation for that - you see, in the original script, Phelps was secretly trying to help the team!

In a scene right before the big game at the end of the film that will determine if the Indians make the playoffs, team manager Lou Brown (played beautifully by James Gammon) confronts Phelps. The team’s hapless General Manager, Charlie Donovan, had secretly gone to Brown earlier in the season to reveal Phelps’ plot to move the team, and Brown had used her plan to motivate the team to play even harder, and it had resulted in a sizable turnaround for the team (who was one game under .500 when Donovan told Brown of the plot).

And now, with the last game of the season ready to be played, Brown turns in his notice for his resignation after the season ends.

Phelps responds that she WANTED Donovan to tell Brown, because she knew Brown would use that information to motivate the team. Brown incredulously asks, ” You tryin’ to make me believe you wanted us to win all along?”

After she nods, she explains her plan:

We were broke. We couldn’t afford anything better. Donald [her late husband who she inherited the team from] left the team nearly bankrupt. If we’d had another losing season, I would have had to sell the team. I knew we couldn’t win with the team we had, so I decided to bring in new players and see how they’d do with the proper motivation. There was never any offer from Miami. I made it all up.

When he doubts her, she points out the plot problem I mentioned earlier, if she wanted them to lose, why not just send the best players down to the minors?

Phelps then basically reveals that she discovered “Moneyball” years before Billy Beane did, as she explains how she put the team together:

You think this was all an accident? I personally scouted every member of this team, except Hayes, of course [Willie Hayes, played by Wesley Snipes, was a walk on to the team]. He was a surprise. They all had flaws which concealed their real talent, or I wouldn’t have been able to get them. But I knew if anyone could straighten them out, you could. And if you tell them any of this, I will fire you.

and as he shakes his head in disbelief, she tells him, “I love this team, Lou. Go get ‘em tonight.”

The scene was filmed, but test audiences reacted poorly to it. Basically, they had gotten so used to disliking her the whole movie that they were not prepared for her suddenly to be a “good guy.” So the producers dropped the scene and filmed some additional scenes of Phelps reacting to the Indians’ success with dismay (as naturally, they do win the division and make the playoffs).

Isn’t it amazing how much that would have changed the way you watched that film?

The alternate ending is available on the Major League: Wild Thing Edition DVD. Sadly, while I was working on this legend, actor James Gammon passed away. He was an impressive actor - may he rest in peace.

BASEBALL LEGEND: Jack Doyle was the first pinch-hitter in Major League history.

STATUS: False

Jack Doyle was born in Ireland in 1869. He came over to America and attended Fordham University. He first played professional baseball in 1889 and was still involved working as a scout for the Chicago Cubs at the time of his death in 1958.

Doyle has often been credited as being the very first pinch-hitter in Major League history (heck, his page on Wikipedia still cites him as the first pinch-hitter). Part of this has to do with the fact that Doyle was always sure he was the first pinch-hitter in Major League history, and would tell anyone who cared to listen.

His story is that while playing for Cleveland in June of 1892, he was called up to hit in the ninth inning while playing Brookyn. He responded with a game-winning single.

While part of that story is untrue (Cleveland did not win the game), it IS true that he DID pinch-hit in that game. And that WAS one of the earliest examples of a player being a pinch-hitter.

However, Mickey Welch pinch-hit for the New York baseball team (before they were called the Giants) in August of 1889 (almost exactly 121 years ago to the day).

Welch MIGHT not be THE first (as perhaps there was an earlier example that has been lost to history), but he certainly was before Doyle.

BASEBALL LEGEND: As an adolescent, Mark Teixeira had an interesting way of expressing his appreciation for the band, Nirvana.

STATUS: True

This made the rounds of the internet back in June, and it is such a strange story that I figured I’d best address it here.

Mark Teixeira is the All-Star first baseman for the New York Yankees.

He was the runner-up for the 2009 American League Most Valuable Player Award.

Born in 1980, as a pre-teen, Teixeira was a major fan of the band Nirvana, and especially its lead singer, Kurt Cobain.

The young man was SO into the group that when he was 12 years old, which was right smack in the middle of that two-three year period when Nirvana was pretty much the biggest band in the world (their 1991 album, Nevermind AND their 1993 album, In Utero, both hit #1 on the charts), the young Teixeira decided to pay tribute to Kurt Cobain.

How?

By changing his name to Kurt Teixeira.

Now, being 12 years old and all, he couldn’t ACTUALLY change his name (legally, at least), but he effectively changed his name, as he began signing everything as “Kurt Teixeira.”

In an interview with MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds, Teixeira’s mother spilled the beans. When asked about it, the first baseman replied:

I would fill out…anytime I’d fill anything out whether it was for comic books or CD clubs or anything I would write Kurt Teixeira just because I didn’t know what I was doing. I was twelve years old and I was having fun with it.

The interview didn’t go into how Teixeira reacted when Cobain killed himself in 1994. I imagine he did not take it too well.

Thanks to Harold Reynolds for getting the info, Margy Canterna Teixeira for spilling the beans about her son and Mark Teixeria for confirming it.

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

Let’s begin!

SOCCER/FOOTBALL LEGEND: The game of soccer/association football was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize!

STATUS: True

On April 23, 2000, three people died (and many more were injured) when thousands of fans pushed their way into a packed stadium in Morovia, Liberia to watch a World Cup qualifier match between Liberia and Chad. Less than three months later, on July 9, 2000, a dozen people died in a stampede following a World Cup qualifier between South African and Zimbabwe in Harare, Zimbabwe.

In April 2001, stampedes killed 43 people in a match between the popular Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates in South Africa and later in the month, stampedes killed 8 people in the Congo.

In May of 2001, police were called in when fighting began at the end of a match between two of Ghana’s best teams, Accra’s Hearts of Oak and Assante Kotoko, due to Assante fans throwing chairs and bottles on to the field in anger at the end of an Accra 2-1 victory. When police shot tear gas into the crowd, a stampede killed over 100 people. Just three days earlier, a fight broke out between fans at a match in the Ivory Coast, killing one person and injuring over three dozen more.

You might be wondering, “What is the point of mentioning all of this soccer-related death and violence from 2000 and 2001?”

I mention it because soccer/association football was nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.

First off, there is likely some confusion over what it means to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. In the other categories like Literature and Physics, the Nobel Prize Committee solicits nominees from thousands of academics in the field of the respective categories. For the Nobel Peace Prize, however, the request for nominees is sent to international courts, governments, professors, former winners of the prize and members (past and present) of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. There are dozens, sometimes hundreds, of nominees for each category. However, unlike the Academy Awards and many other awards of its kind, the Nobel Prize does not have a “short list” of finalists of which one winner is announced. In fact, the other nominees are not announced at ALL for fifty years, when the records behind the given award are unsealed and open to the public. The people who are nominated do not even know it themselves typically. So then how do we know Soccer was nominated?

While the Nobel Prize Committee does not announce the nominees, they allow the people doing the nominating to reveal to the public if they nominated someone. And since a good deal of Nobel Prize nominations are done to “make a point,” they are often announced by the nominator.

In the case of Soccer, the person who nominated it was Swedish lawmaker Lars Gustafsson.

In the preamble to his nomination letter to the Committee in Oslo, Norway, Gustafsson wrote:

Although modern sport has enhanced the understanding between people of different races and religions in different countries, it has never been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Therefore, to put notice on and encourage sports ability to create positive international contacts, a contribution to a more peaceful world, I hereby nominate football, the greatest sport of all, as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2001. I propose that the recipient of the prize should be the Federation Internationale de Football Association, FIFA.

After a brief history of the sport, he continued:

Taking part in the game of football, either as a player or as a spectator, is a way of expressing oneself in a universal language. With its common rules and principles of understanding, football creates a public meeting-place with no hindering boundaries. The game links people together from most nations of the world, from different continents and with varying history and culture.

As examples, Gustafsson pointed out how North and South Korea sent a unified Korean team to compete in the 1991 Junior World Championship in Portugal, well ahead of any formal diplomatic negotiations between the two nations. Along those same lines, Gustafsson refers to the discussions between North Korea, South Korea, Iran and Iraq to establish an Asia-qualification round for the 2004 World Championship. At the same time that politicians could not get in the same room with each other, sports officials were negotiating in a spirit of friendliness.

Perhaps nowhere was this dichotomy between political interaction and athletic interaction more evident than in the 1988 World Cup, when the United States faced off against Iran in the group round. When nations as diametrically opposed as those two face off on the field in a spirit of friendly competition rather than political aggression, then there really does feel as though there is a point to Gustafsson’s seemingly outlandish nomination.

The 2001 Nobel Peace Prize ultimately went to Kofi Annan and the United Nations (which is really odd, considering that Annan did not score a single goal in the 1998 World Cup), with Jimmy Carter taking home the prize in 2002. As far as I can tell, no sport has been nominated for the Nobel Prize since (although, again, we’re talking about a secretive nomination process, so it might have happened without anyone but the Committee and the nominator knowing - heck, maybe Gustafsson was not even the first person TO nominate a sport!). Amusingly enough, though, just earlier this year another interesting nomination was made for the Nobel Peace Prize - the Internet itself!!

Thanks to ABCNews.com for information about the nomination and to Lars Gustafsson for making his nomination letter public!

SOCCER/FOOTBALL LEGEND: The 2010 Champions League Final was held out of England because England would tax the winning players!

STATUS: True

The Union of European Football Associations’ Champions League Final (where the best European association football clubs are pitted against each other) is one of the most-watched sporting events in the entire world. It and the National Football League Super Bowl are neck and neck every year for first and second in overall ratings (we’re talking over 100 million viewers here).

So as you might imagine, hosting the Final is a nice boon, just as it is for cities hosting the Super Bowl.

However, for the 2010 Final, England lost out on the chance to host it in Wembley Stadium.

And why?

Because of taxes!

You see, British tax laws state that you must pay British taxes (which are pretty hefty) if you play a game on British soil.

The Italian club Internazionale ended up winning the tournament last year - they would have ended up paying nearly HALF of their prize money to England had it been held in London. The UEFA stated that that was why Madrid beat out London for the hosting rights.

In response to this, amazingly enough, the British Parliament actually AMENDED their tax law in March of 2010.

At the end of a technical document entitled “notes on budget resolutions” there is now a clause that states that Parliament “authorises the Finance Bill to contain provision to exempt certain persons from income tax in respect of certain income arising in connection with the 2011 Champions League final”.

And, shockingly enough, Wembley Stadium is the venue for the 2011 Champions League final.

Money talks, I guess.

SOCCER/FOOTBALL LEGEND: British World Cup fever in 1966 led to a Prime Minister being elected.

STATUS: False

You can see this is a number of places, but specifically I’m citing the British social research group, SIRC (Social Issues Research Centre)…

Sport’s impact goes beyond the day-to-day social environment of the workplace. Famously, Harold Wilson, following England’s win in the 1966 World Cup, claimed his subsequent election victory was in no small part due to the team’s performance and the wave of euphoria and goodwill emanating as a consequence.

I don’t know if Wilson ever CLAIMED that, but it certainly has gone into British lore as happening that way.

However, as you probably know by now, the World Cup begins in the Summer (in 1966 it was held from July 11-July 30).

Wilson was elected Prime Minister on March 31, 1966.

Soooooo….yeah, the election was not due to the British victory in the 1966 World Cup.

Now if you wish to argue that his DEFEAT in 1970 was due to the British disappointing finish in the 1970 World Cup, then you at least have a case, but not for his election.

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

Let’s begin!

BASKETBALL LEGEND: Los Angeles Clippers guard Eric Gordon played Michael Jordan’s son in the film Space Jam.

STATUS: False

Michael Jordan’s youngest son, Marcus, made the wrong kind of headlines when the college sophomore called out Kobe Bryant on Twitter in the middle of the seventh game of the NBA Finals (a game Bryant’s team, the Los Angeles Lakers, won) as not being worthy of being compared to Marcus’ father. The younger Jordan is currently playing basketball for University of Central Florida. Before Florida, Jordan graduated from Whitney Young, a prestigious public school in Chicago. Jordan only attended Whitney Young his last two years of high school. His first two years he spent attending the private school, Loyola Academy, along with his older brother, Jeffrey. The two played together during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons and led Loyola to a pair of conference championships. In February of 2007, the Jordan brothers faced off against North Central High School (from Indianapolis, Indiana). North Central’s star player, guard Eric Gordon, exploded for 43 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 assists. This is noteworthy because an Eric Gordon PORTRAYED Marcus Jordan in Michael Jordan’s hit 1996 film, Space Jam!

But is it the SAME Eric Gordon who now plays for the Los Angeles Clippers?

MY answer is no.

First off, some details on Space Jam. Filmed and released in 1996, the movie involves Michael Jordan teaming up with Bugs Bunny to stop some evil cartoon bad guys through the power of basketball. All of Jordan’s three children, as well as his then-wife, Juanita, are characters in the movie, but none of them are played by themselves. Theresa Randle plays Juanita, Manner Washington plays Jeffrey, Penny Bae Bridges plays Jordan’s daughter, Jasmine, and, sure enough, Eric Gordon plays Marcus Jordan.

Sadly for us, the Gordon in the movie has not done any films since, so we cannot verify that it is not the basketball-playing Gordon simply by noting that this Gordon is currently starring in a sitcom or a film. His IMDB profile page suggests that the Gordon in the film was born in 1989, but they also add “circa,” and even if they did not, IMDB is user-generated so the information posted there is not always correct. So the fact that Eric Gordon (from here on out I’ll refer to the NBA player as Eric Gordon, Jr. as that’s what his full name is) was born in December of 1988 and the actor in the film was allegedly born “circa 1989″ does not really tell us anything.

However, in terms of the doubtfulness of the story…

One, the Marcus characters does not really do any basketball playing in the film, so it is highly doubtful that they were looking for a kid with basketball abilities (I also don’t even think Gordon Jr. looks like the actor in the film, but I cannot say that I have seen many pictures of Gordon Jr. as an 8-year old - here is a picture of the actor next to a high school shot of Gordon Jr., though)…

Two, besides a few scenes filmed in the United Center, Space Jam was filmed in California. Eric Gordon, Jr. was born and raised in Indiana. The odds of a movie filming in California (including pretty much all of the scenes involving the kids) hiring a child actor from Indiana for such a small role are very slim.

Three, the coverage of the aforementioned game between Gordon Jr.’s team and the Jordan brothers was significant. It was aired nationally (a relative rarity for high school basketball games not involving Lebron James). And in all of the TV and newspaper coverage, no one noted that Gordon , Jr. would be playing against the man whose son he played in a movie. Does anyone believe that that would seriously never come up? The story did not come up until Gordon, Jr. was attending Indiana University, at which point it began showing up everywhere to the point where it is now pretty much all over the internet as “true.”

But the last reason, and the most important of all, that the story is false is that Gordon, Jr. has been asked this in interviews many times, and every time it comes up, he denies it. Here he is denying it in an interview soon after being drafted by the Clippers. He has even denied it without specifically denying it (which is to say that he has spoken in interviews about the two times that he met Michael Jordan, both times at All-Star Games during high school - so without specifically saying “I was not in Space Jam,” saying “I never met Michael Jordan until high school” would be an effective denial)!

When you put it together, when Gordon’s denials match the facts of the situation as we know them, it seems pretty clear that Eric Gordon, Jr. did not play Michael Jordan’s son in Space Jam. Last year’s All-Star “dunk-in” contest (which determined who between Gordon, Jr. and the Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan would move on to the official dunk contest - DeRozan won) should also have cleared things up - how could anyone who even acted as Michael Jordan’s son miss eight dunks during a dunk contest?

Thanks to Steve Mason & John Ireland of ESPN radio for the aforementioned interview with Gordon Jr. And thanks to Eric Gordon, Jr. for the information!

BASKETBALL LEGEND: A 2001 game between Michigan State and the University of Virginia was canceled due to a bizarre situation with the floor of the court.

STATUS: True

Every year since 1999, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big Ten Conference have held a yearly basketball match called the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, where teams from the ACC are matched up against teams from the Big Ten and the conference who wins the most games is deemed the overall winner (the ACC won the first ten challenges).

In 2001, the Big Ten’s Michigan State Spartans were set against the ACC’s University of Virginia Cavaliers in the Cavaliers’ home court of Richmond Stadium…

The game was held on November 28, 2001.

The problem was that that day was an uncommonly warm day for November - over 70 degrees outside! As a result of the excessive heat and the ice below the floorboards at Richmond Stadium, condensation caused the floor to become covered with water.

With UVA up 31-28 in the second half, conditions were just too dangerous, so the game was canceled. I don’t even know how to describe it - rained out? iced out? slippery-ed out?

In the 2002 Challenge, the teams played each other again, only this time in Michigan, where the Spartans pulled out an 82-75 victory.

BASKETBALL LEGEND: There was an amusing ending to the first NBA game ever to be replayed - the so-called “Phantom Buzzer” game.

STATUS: True

The “Phantom Buzzer” game has a special place in NBA history - it’s the first game ever to be successfully protested (there have been less than five successful protests in NBA history!).

What happened was that the Chicago Bulls were hosting the Atlanta Hawks on November 9, 1969.

The Bulls were coached by Dick Motta…

And the Hawks were coached by Richie Guerin…

Late in the game, the Bulls were down 124-122. They took a desperation shot at the basket and it rimmed out. However, Bulls center Tom Boerwinkle managed to tip it in with 1 second left on the game clock.

However, referee Bob Sakal waved the basket off, saying that the buzzer had sounded and the game was over.

Motta was a mixture of incensed and incredulous. No one else in the Stadium had heard the buzzer sound. The clock clearly showed 1 second left on it.

The timekeeper said he did not touch the clock. And in fact, to demonstrated, he showed that once he pressed the release on the clock (to let it go), it then buzzed after a second ran off of it.

Sakal was undeterred - the game was over, the Hawks won (the second referee for the game deferred to Sakal).

Naturally, the Bulls protested the game, and in the first time a protest ever actually WORKED, the league granted the Bulls’ protest.

The game was continued before the next time the Bulls and Hawks played. The score was tied and one second was left on the clock. The Hawks got the ball and, hilariously, after a second, the buzzer DIDN’T GO OFF!

Some mechanical screw-up saw the buzzer go silent as the last second ticked off of the clock.

Guerin, of course, decided to play it up and pretend that he was outraged, but of course, once the timekeeper showed that yes, the second DID tick off, Guerin let it be.

The game went to overtime and the Hawks won the game, 142-137, but at least the Bulls lost fair and square!

But how hilarious is it that the buzzer didn’t work during the replay?!

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

This is a special themed edition! All legends involving Jimmy Dykes!

Let’s begin!

BASEBALL LEGEND: A former White Sox player stole home because he thought he saw the “steal home” sign…from his former manager, Dykes!

STATUS: I’m Going With False

Jimmy Dykes is one of the most colorful characters in the history of baseball - and Dykes hung around baseball for a very long time. Born in 1896, Dykes broke into the Major Leagues in 1918 but soon had to serve in the military at the end of World War I. He returned in 1919 and became a stalwart of the Philadelphia Athletics, playing third base for the team for the next fourteen years (the Athletics won three pennants and two world titles in that time). After being sold to the Chicago White Sox in 1932 (along with star players Mule Haas and Al Simmons, the trio were sold for $100,000 - Athletics’ owner Connie Mack needed the money, but the White Sox also needed some good players if they wanted to keep fans interested during the Great Depression), Dykes remained popular enough to be named to the first two All-Star Games in 1933 and 1934.

Also in 1934, Dykes was named player-manager of the White Sox, and he would remain manager (he retired as a player in 1939) of the team until 1946. While he won no pennants with the team, the White Sox were more successful with Dykes than they had been in years (since the infamous 1919 “Black Sox” scandal, the White Sox were an awful baseball team). Dykes was a fiery fellow, but he was generally very well liked by his players. He was known as a great motivator. He was also known as a practical joker, with exploding cigars being a main stock of his trade. He also was not a big fan of umpires…

While there are a number of great stories about Dykes from his long history as a player and manager (he would go on to manage five other teams in his career), the story I am opening with involves baseball signs, and more importantly, remembering the signs your former team used.

As you may or may not know, baseball teams frequently use elaborate hand signals (or “signs”) for the manager and coaches to inform the players what they want them to do. For instance, let’s say the manager wants the batter to bunt the ball. There will be a secret series of hand signals that will denote “bunt.”

Dykes had a player who he often had a hard time teaching signs to. Henry “Zeke” Bonura was one of the greatest Italian-American athletes of his generation (he is a member of the Italian American Sports Hall of Fame). A powerful athlete, at the age of 16 in 1925 he became youngest male athlete ever to win an event at the National Track and Field Championships (in the javelin throw). His power translated to the major leagues - he was a prodigious hitter. He broke in with the White Sox the same year Dykes became manager of the team. He set a then-record for most home runs by a White Sox rookie (27). He also had the White Sox record for most runs batted in in a season (138) that eventually fell to Albert Belle in 1998 (Frank Thomas also passed it in 2000).

Bonura, though, had a hard time following the signs. One famous story involved Dykes trying to get Bonura to bunt but it just wasn’t getting through. From a Franz Lidz article in Sports Illustrated in 1982, “Webb repeated the sign; Bonura continued to gape. They went through it again. Finally Dykes, watching impatiently from the dugout steps, had had enough. “Bunt, you meathead,” he shouted. “Bunt. Bunt. B-U-N-T.” A glint of recognition lit up Bonura’s face. On the next pitch, he bunted.”

I can’t confirm or deny that one, but in that same section, Lidz has a few more stories about Dykes and signs, including the one that we’re specifically discussing today.

First, he tells a story about when Dykes left the Athletics…

Connie Mack traded him to the White Sox in 1933, and Dykes, who had played under Mack for 15 seasons, figured he had taken the A’s signs with him. When Chicago next played the A’s, Dykes thought he saw Mack give the bunt sign. Dykes charged the plate with the pitch and nearly got his head removed by a line drive.

“After you left us,” Mr. Mack gently explained later, “we changed our signs.”

Dykes has confirmed this story over the years and I believe that it is true, but it’s also not something I can necessarily confirm or deny. It wasn’t so notable to make newspaper accounts of the game and it is not something that would show up in a box score. But it seems reasonable enough.

Now later in the article, though…

In 1938 Dykes traded Bonura to Washington. The first time the Senators visited Comiskey Park that season, Sox Coach Bing Miller advised Dykes to change his signs because Bonura knew them. “Why should we?” asked Dykes. “He couldn’t remember them when he was with us.”

Bonura wound up on third during one of the games. He glanced into the home dugout, where Dykes was waving a scorecard at a buzzing mosquito. As the pitcher wound up, Bonura wobbled down the third-base line like an errant truck and sent the catcher sprawling.

Bonura was safe, and when asked why he stole home, he said, “I saw Dykes give the sign to steal, and I forgot I wasn’t on his team anymore.”

That is a great story and it is a very popular tale of baseball lore (it pops up in many “wacky baseball stories” books), but for this one, we DO have the answer.

Bonura played against the White Sox nineteen times in the 1938 season, nine of them in Comiskey. He had zero stolen bases in those games. In addition, in a 1957 Baseball Digest article on Dykes, the above story is repeated up until the point where Dykes says “He couldn’t remember them when he was with us.” And the story ends “No signs were changed. Bonura never intercepted one.”

It is almost certain that the stolen base against the White Sox is just a variation on an actual Bonura story back when he was playing with the White Sox. As I mentioned earlier, Bonura had a hard time following signs, and at times he would mis-read the signs and think he was supposed to steal (and he not being a fast guy exactly, he was rarely asked to steal by the manager - he had only 19 career stolen bases, and who knows how many of them were accidental). And in a game against the New York Yankees in August of 1935, Bonura did, in fact, steal home (he had four stolen bases against the Yankees in his career with the White Sox).

Chicago sportswriter Irving Vaughan wrote about it in a story on Bonura in 1936, “All of a sudden, a cloud of dust started to raise between third and home. It was Zeke calling on his legs to carry out a Ty Cobb thought.” Yankee catcher Bill Dickey remarked, “What’s this game coming to? If a big lumberman like that can steal home, then we had best fold up.”

So almost certainly that’s the game that was mixed up with Bonura returning as a Senator to steal home to beat his former team.

Thanks to Franz Lidz for the article, Irving Vaughan for his article and Otto Bruno of the great website, The Old Ball Game, for finding Vaughan’s article! Thanks, Otto!

BASEBALL LEGEND: Jimmy Dykes was once traded from the Detroit Tigers to the Cleveland Indians…when he was a manager!!

STATUS: True

Dykes’ long run as Chicago White Sox manager ended in the late 1940s (he was replaced by Ted Lyons, the Hall of Fame pitcher whose late career revival was heavily due to how Dykes handled him - Dykes had him pitch once a week, and the veteran pitcher responded beautifully to the extra rest). Dykes was hand-picked by Connie Mack to replace the Hall of Fame manager in Philadelphia (where Dykes had starred as a player). His tenure in Philly would be short-lived, however, and in 1954 Dykes became the first manager in Baltimore Orioles history.

That term, too, would be short-lived. Dykes ended up working as a coach for the Reds in the late 1950s (when they were going by the Redlegs because of fear over Communism) and even served as their interim manager in 1958.

He went back to the American League in 1959 to become the manager of the Detroit Tigers.

Here’s where things get REALLY interesting.

With the Tigers and the Cleveland Indians both in a funk in the 1960 season, Indians General Manager Frank Lane proposed a trade…a trade of MANAGERS!

Lane sent the Indian manager, Joe Gordon, to the Tigers for Dykes!

Neither team responded particularly well to the trade. The Indians were actually over .500 with Gordon, but under .500 with Dykes (and finished the season at .458).

Dykes would manage the Indians for the 1961 season, where they would improve, but still finish under .500 (Dykes was let go at the end of the season).

He hung around for a few more years as a coach for other teams before finally calling it quits in 1964.

BASEBALL LEGEND: Jimmy Dykes was the first person to wear zippers in his uniform.

STATUS: True

In 1937, the Chicago Cubs debuted new uniforms.

Here they are, sketched out in the Chicago Tribune in an article by Ed Burns…

The Cubs were the first team to have zippers be part of their standard uniform. It was a trend that would soon spread to at least half of the teams in the league, before they all one by one went back to the buttoned up jerseys that you see today (the Philadelphia Phillies were the last team to wear zipped-up jerseys, and that was in 1986!). However, they kept the zippered pants.

In any event, the IDEA behind the zippered jerseys came from Jimmy Dykes!

You see, in 1936, he was the manager of the crosstown Chicago White Sox, and Dykes liked to be able to get the heck out of the clubhouse and get himself to a drinking establishment as fast as possible after the game (remember, Dykes was still only in his late 30s when he began managing the Sox).

So Dykes had a zippered jersey made for him, and the Cubs were inspired to use it themselves, and soon a trend was born!

Jimmy Dykes - he was involved in a lot of baseball history!

Thanks to Ed Burns for the 1937 article!

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

Let’s begin!

SOCCER/FOOTBALL LEGEND: Johan Cruyff sat out the 1978 FIFA World Cup as a political protest.

STATUS: I’m Going With False

There is a long history of countries using international athletic competitions as political tools. Just during a four year stretch during the 1930s, you had Japan trying to send a delegation from their puppet nation, Manchukuo, to solidify that country’s status as a “real” country in the 1932 Olympics, then Benito Mussolini using the 1934 FIFA World Cup to show Italian superiority and Adolf Hitler using the 1936 Olympics to do the same for Germany.

More recently, the United States and the Soviet Union used the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, respectively, to make political points through boycotts.

So when Argentina was named as the site for the 1978 FIFA World Cup tournament, it was a major political coup for the new military leadership of the country, who had taken over Argentina in a Coup d’état in 1976. Jorge Rafael Videla was the nominal president of a military junta (or council) that ran the country and made several human rights violations between 1976 and 1983.

In 1978, while people likely did not know the extent of the problems in Argentina (thousands of dissenters went “missing” in those years), they did know that there were some serious human rights problems going on. So a number of countries made noise when Argentina was named as the host country of the World Cup. However much bluster there was, no country ended up actually boycotting the event, not even Netherlands, which was one of the more vocal countries about the Argentine leadership.

There WAS one notable absence, though - Netherlands’ star player, Johann Cruyff, perhaps the best European football player of the 1970s, and the leader of the Netherlands team.

Cruyff helped lead Netherlands to the finals of the 1974 FIFA World Cup (where they lost to host West Germany) and was thought by many to have been the best player in that particular tournament, even though his team ultimately did not win it all. Cruyff retired from international play in October of 1977 at the age of 31. The presumption for decades was that Cruyff was protesting the military dictatorship and human rights abuses in Argentina - we now know that this almost certainly not the case.

Cruyff was often outspoken about politics, so it was quite easy to believe that he was boycotting the games for the rumored reasons. To wit, when he was sold from the Dutch football team Ajax to the Spanish football team Barcelona in 1973 (for a staggering amount, equivalent to $2 million US dollars in 1973 money!), Cruyff made a comment about how he was pleased he was not sold to Real Madrid as he did not want to play for a team associated with the Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco.

However, the truth was a good deal more straightforward. Just a few years ago, Cruyff made international headlines when he revealed that he was actually kidnapped (well, held captive at riflepoint in his own home) in Barcelona 1977, soon before he retired! Kidnapping has become somewhat of an accepted terror in South America, but in the 1970s, it was actually more common in the RICHER nations of the world for kidnappings to happen (like the famous Patty Hearst kidnapping in the United States). Kruyff and his family were under armed guard for months following the incident. Naturally enough, you can certainly understand why Kruyff would not want to go off to Argentina (or anywhere, for that matter) in the wake of such an incident.

Interestingly enough, it appears as though Cruyff’s revelation came about due to his wish to debunk a DIFFERENT rumor about why he skipped the 1978 World Cup. You see, there were a good deal of rumors surrounding the 1974 Dutch team and sexual indiscretions (nothing proven, of course, and Cruyff certainly denies anything ever happened) and in a recent book, Cruyff’s former Barcelona teammate, Carles Rexach, asserted that it was Cruyff’s wife, Danny, who told Cruyff that he could not go to Argentina, as she could not handle being apart from him for a month (in the alternative, that she did not trust him on his own for a month). These rumors were highly popular in the Netherlands for decades, and Cruyff seemed willing to allow his wife to work somewhat as a scapegoat for decisions in his life, but it appears that his former friend’s book was the last straw, so Cruyff decided to finally admit his take on why he did not go to Argentina in 1978. In recent interviews about the event, Cruyff stated “To play a World Cup you have to be 200 per cent. There are moments when there are other values in life.”

Another rumor about why Cruyff skipped the World Cup had to do with sneaker endorsements (Cruyff had a contract with Puma while the Dutch national team was sponsored by Adidas).

I don’t think we’ll ever know for absolutely sure (although, really, the kidnapping angle sure seems to be a blatantly obvious reason to skip an international event, don’t you think? Especially as Cruyff and his family left Europe period in 1979 to go play for a professional soccer league in the United States), but the political reasons do not seem to have played any role in his decision.

His absence was made more dramatic when the Dutch team made it all the way to the Finals before falling to the team from the host country, Argentina.

Thanks so much to Dutch football expert Ernst Bouwes for his expertise on collecting all the various rumors about the 1978 World Cup.

SOCCER/FOOTBALL LEGEND: A famous football striker had a rather inventive response to being replaced as #9 on the team.

STATUS: True

Throughout professional sports, uniform numbers have taken on great meaning. Players all over the world have particular numbers that they want to wear, whether it be in honor of a former great (like all the players who were #23 in honor of Michael Jordan) or because of the prestige that comes with wearing the number (wearing #1 has become a traditional honor at the University of Michigan).

Famed Chilean football player, Iván Zamorano, was the centre forward for the Serie A (the Italian professional league) team, Internazionale, during the late 1990s, beginning in 1996.

The centre forward (the forward who plays closest to the opposing team’s goal) is known as the “striker,” as he is usually the player who is relied upon to score the majority of the team’s goals. As you might imagine, it is quite a prestigious position.

Traditionally, the centre forward is given the number 9. Zamorano had that honor with Internazionale.

In 1997, Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima (better known as Ronaldo) joined the team. The young star (a decade younger than Zamorano) took the number #10.

However, soon Internazionale worked out a new sponsorship with Nike, and as part of the agreement, Nike wanted Ronaldo, one of the biggest stars in the world at the time, to wear #9. Inter agreed, and Ronaldo got the prized number…

Zamorano was none too pleased with this development, and dealt with it in an interesting manner. He took the number 18 (a number typically reserved for backups) and made a slight…alteration…

Yep, his number was, in his mind, not 18, but 1 + 8, or, in other words, 9.

Pretty funny solution, huh?

SOCCER/FOOTBALL LEGEND: A message board poster in England correctly predicted a 7-0 victory in the quarter finals of the 2006 Football Association Challenge Cup.

STATUS: True

On March 21, 2006, Liverpool defeated Birmingham City 7-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2006 Football Association Challenge Cup (better known as the FA Cup) on their way to winning the entire tournament. It was one of the most lopsided victories in the history of the FA Cup (and seeing as how the FA Cup began in 1871, that’s saying something!).

But perhaps even more remarkable than the devastating victory was the fact that the score was actually PREDICTED by a message board poster the day of the game!!

An 18-year-old poster, Adam Gabri, going by the user name “Messi better than cesc” made the statement on the BBC 606 message board just 40 minutes before the game began. As you can tell by his user name, Gabri (from Croydon, which is a district in South London) is someone who likes to talk a little trash, and his prediction was meant in that spirit. As Gabri related, “It was just one of those things. I thought it would be funny to wind a few people up on the message boards to see how they would react.”

He was basing his post on the fact that Liverpool HAD scored a goodly amount of goals their previous few games, but the similarities between his guesses and the actual match were uncanny!

Gabri predicted that Liverpool would score 38 seconds into the match. They actually scored 55 seconds into the match!

Gabri predicted an own goal 77 minutes into the match, Birmingham City scored an own goal 79 minutes in!!

If only Gabri would have made a bet on his hunch!

Here’s his original post (well, someone quoting his original post, that is)…

Thanks to the BBC Football website (I can’t find any specific writer of the articles) for the information!

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

Today’s football legends have a special theme - all legends about COLLEGE football!

Let’s begin!

FOOTBALL LEGEND: Fresno State wears a “V” on their helmets as in “V for Victory”

STATUS: False

California State University, Fresno, better known as Fresno State, has a bulldog as the mascot for their football team.

The bulldog is seen on their helmets, as well…

However, also visible on Fresno State helmets since the late 1990s is a green letter V…

Since Fresno State does not have a V anywhere in its name (nor does California, although I guess there is one “v” in University), the meaning of the V has been much debated.

A popular theory was that the V stood for “Victory,” as the phrase “V for Victory” is a well-known turn of phrase.

However, the actual meaning behind the V is much more straightforward.

From Fresno State’s own website:

When Pat Hill became Fresno State’s head coach prior to the 1997 season, he wanted to reinvigorate San Joaquin Valley pride in the Bulldogs. Because Fresno State is the only Division I football program in the Valley, a 250-mile stretch in California’s midsection from Bakersfield to Modesto, Hill wanted to make the Bulldogs the “Green Bay Packers of college football.” As Coach Hill often states, Fresno State is not only representing Fresno, its representing the entire Valley.

This representation of the San Joaquin Valley is displayed in the form of a green “V” on the back of the Bulldogs’ helmets. The green in the “V” is a symbol to the agricultural community of the Central Valley, which is the world’s richest agricultural area in export dollars.

“The people of this Valley are of vital importance to the success of this football program,” said Hill. “They help us fund the program, they give us unparalleled support, and they are going to be the big reason we take this program to a level where we are consistently in the Top 25.”

And it IS true, Fresno State long has been the college football team associated with the Central California Valley, San Joaquin, in particular.

So that’s a very cool move by Coach Hill, who has been quite successful at Fresno State these past 13 years.

Here’s an interesting side note about the connection between Fresno State and the Valley community. Likely based on the school, a gang in the Central Valley began calling itself the bulldogs. As the popularity of Fresno State has grown in the Central Valley the last decade or so, so too has the popularity of the gang, to the point where Fresno State paraphernalia was actually BANNED in middle schools and high schools in the Valley a few years back.

Fresno State wanted to become popular in the valley, but I guess they succeeded TOO well!!!

FOOTBALL LEGEND: Ohio State once gave up a touchdown…to its own player!

STATUS: True

The grand legacy of Ohio State football began in 1890 (here’s a team photo)…

Frederick “Jack” Ryder was an early football innovator, bringing Oberlin College their very first football team. In 1892, Ryder was hired as the very first head coach in Ohio State history. He made the staggering total of $15 a week. Ryder served as head coach for three years before he left the team to serve in the Spanish-American War.

He returned in 1898, following a dreadful 1897 Ohio State season where the team won the grand total of ONE game - and that win was courtesy of a forfeit by Ohio Medical in a game that Ohio State was trailing at the time!

Ryder’s career ended with a record of 22-22, with 2 ties, but one of his losses in the 1898 seasons is likely the most notable game in his coaching career.

On October 22, 1898, Ohio State was hosting Marietta College…

Marietta was ahead 3-0 in the second half when one of their players was injured. In the early days of college football, teams rarely traveled with more than a few backup players, and in this game, Marietta only had one backup, and that player has already been called into the game because of a prior injury to a different Marietta player.

So now down to 10 players, Marietta was faced with having to forfeit the game. With no other option, the coach of Marietta asked Ryder if Ohio State could loan them a player to finish the game. Ryder agreed, and halfback Bob Hager switched teams.

That switch would prove to be quite problematic for Ohio State, as Hager would score on a 67-yard touchdown run later in the game, providing the final scoring in a 10-0 Marietta victory.

Ryder was fired at the end of the season.

Thanks to Jack Park’s essential tome, The Official Ohio State Football Encyclopedia, for the information!

FOOTBALL LEGEND: Sun Devil Stadium had an extreme makeover when Pope John Paul II came to visit during the 1980s.

STATUS: True

Since 1946, Arizona State’s football team has been known as the Sun Devils.

The Sun Devil logo and mascot (known as “Sparky”) was designed by former Walt Disney artist, Bert Anthony.

Built in 1958, Sun Devil Stadium has been home to Arizona State football for over five decades. It also was the home of the Arizona Cardinals until 2005.

It has been host to a number of famous concerts and events, including the 1996 NFL Super Bowl.

However, one of its most amusing/historic events was when Pope John Paul II visited Arizona in 1987.

Naturally, for all the people who wanted to see the visiting Pope, a large stadium was needed, and Sun Devil Stadium was the obvious choice. The only problem was, well, the name. Can’t exactly have the leader of the Catholic Church delivering a speech at a stadium named after a devil, now can you? And the Pope refused to appear at the stadium as it was.

So the stadium went around and covered up every appearance of the word “Devil” at the stadium, and the Pope agreed to enter. He held mass for over 75,000 people on September 14, 1987,

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

Let’s begin!

BASEBALL LEGEND: American League President Lee MacPhail went against the letter of the law when he overturned the umpire’s decision in the famous “Pine Tar Game.”

STATUS: False

It seemed like the entire sports world was shocked on June 2, 2010 when Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga seemed poised to pitch a perfect game (which would have been a record three in one year, following Oakland’s Dallas Braden and Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay). After retiring the previous 26 Cleveland Indians, the 27th man to face Galarraga, rookie shortstop Jason Donald, hit a grounder that was fielded by Tiger first baseman Miguel Cabrera, who threw to Galarraga covering first base. The ball went into Galarraga’s glove a good full step before Donald touched first base, and yet first base umpire Jim Joyce missed the call, calling Donald safe and turning Galarraga’s perfect game into perhaps the most famous one-hitter in baseball history (as Galarraga promptly retired the 28th batter to finish the game).

After the game, many fans and sportswriters wished for Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Bud Selig to overturn Joyce’s call and rule Galarraga’s game an official perfect game. Whether one agrees with that position or not, I think it’s important to note the misconceptions that exist with the major example cited by most of these fans and sportswriters - American League President Lee MacPhail’s decision in the (im)famous 1983 “Pine Tar Game.”

The Pine Tar Game is the shining beacon that pretty much all sportswriters (or fans) will point to when they wish to make an argument about why a sports league should make a certain decision that, while not necessarily according to the rules of the game, seems to be the “fair” decision. In the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Pine Tar Game was cited during the 1996-97 Playoffs as well as the 2006-07 Playoffs, when key players of two teams (the New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns, respectively) were suspended due to a rule stating that players cannot leave their bench during an altercation on the court. The rule is clear on that point, but sportswriters would compare the situation to the Pine Tar Game and ask for the NBA Commissioner David Stern to make the same decision that Lee MacPhail did in 1983, and look past the rule and let the players play (in both instances, Stern chose not to).

But exactly what decision did MacPhail actually make?

The famous New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica described the Pine Tar Game in a June 3, 2010 column about why Selig should overturn Joyce’s call:

Overturning Joyce’s call would not have made the stars fall out of the sky or made the earth stop spinning on its axis. This would have been a proud variation of what Lee MacPhail, then the American League president, did with the Pine Tar Game, Yankees vs. Royals, back in the 80s.

You remember the game. George Brett hit a home run with a bat that had too much pine tar on it. Technically, the umpires were right, going by the letter of the law, to take what turned out to be a game-winning home run from Brett out of the stands.

MacPhail said no.

He invoked the spirit of the law in sports, not the letter of it. He said that the rule about pine tar HADN’T been written to take game-winning home runs out of the stands. The home run stood. You bet it did. The Yankees and Royals came back later on a Monday afternoon and finished the game, which the Royals did end up winning.

Lupica’s take on the game echo many fans and sportswriters. But is that really an accurate description of the Pine Tar Game? I don’t believe it is.

To highlight two sentences - “Technically, the umpires were right, going by the letter of the law, to take what turned out to be a game-winning home run from Brett out of the stands” and “He [MacPhail] invoked the spirit of the law in sports, not the letter of it.”

What exactly was the “letter of the law”?

At the time, the applicable rule was 1.10 (b) (since re-labeled 1.10 (c), along with a note specifically citing the Pine Tar Incident):

The bat handle, for not more than 18 inches from the end, may be covered or treated with any material or substance to improve the grip. Any such material or substance, which extends past the 18-inch limitation, shall cause the bat to be removed from the game.

That’s all that Home Plate Umpire Tim McClelland had to work with. The “letter of the law” simply noted that the bat shall be removed from the game. It says nothing else beyond that. It does not say that you should nullify a hit by a batter with too much pine tar on it, it does not say that you should call a batter out who uses a bat with too much pine tar on it, it does not even say that you could do either of those things.

The precedent did exist, though, for an umpire calling a batter out who used too much pine tar on his bat. In a July 19, 1975 game between the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins (a game the Yankees ended up losing 2-1), the Yankees catcher Thurman Munson had an RBI single taken away when he was called out by Home Plate Umpire Art Frantz for using too much pine tar on his bat. Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles claims that the incident actually led to him informing Yankee Manager Billy Martin about the rule and that the Yankees could most likely achieve a similar result if they chose to with Brett, who they all knew had been using too much pine tar on his bat during the 1983 season. Martin naturally sat on this information until he had a perfect opportunity to nullify a Brett hit.

So after the Brett home run and McLelland noting that Brett’s bat did, in fact, violate Rule 1.10 (b), Martin compelled McLelland to use the 1975 precedence to invoke Rule 9.01(c), which states “Each umpire has authority to rule on any point not specifically covered in these rules.” And McLelland did so, ruling Brett out and the home run taken away.

MacPhail’s dispute, then, was not with the “spirit” of the law, but rather McLelland’s interpretation of the “letter” of the law of Rule 1.10 (b). The pine tar rule was developed not because extra pine tar gave batter’s an added advantage on hitting the ball (it did not, as the excess pine tar would not even touch the batter’s gloves) - the rule was developed because the league did not want bats to be so covered by pine tar that the baseballs would be ruined by all the excess tar (as any baseball coming into contact with tar would be rendered unusable). It was a rule designed to save money on baseballs, not to correct a performance advantage. Therefore, MacPhail ruled that calling a batter out for using such a bat was beyond the intent of the rule as written - not so much the “spirit” of the rule as much as how the rule was written and that McLelland went beyond his discretion by ruling Brett out - the penalty was disproportionate for the “crime.” (which, again, was a simple matter of not wanting to see baseballs ruined by tar). Granted, MacPhail did specifically use the term “spirit of the restriction” in his ruling, so that ended up being what people remembered from the incident.

In the end, though, the much-cited Pine Tar Game was about a mis-applied (in the eye of the American League President) rule, not about a man looking beyond a rule to make the “fair” decision, which is exactly how it often referred to today, including by Mr. Lupica.

As an aside, in an amusing game of “cat and mouse,” when MacPhail ruled that the rest of game was to be played from Brett’s home run on twenty-five days after the original game, Martin decided to pull another gambit - besides mocking the game a bit by having starting pitcher Ron Guidry play center field and first baseman Don Mattingly play second base (becoming the first left-handed fielder to play second base in well over a decade), Martin also protested that Brett did not touch first base, second base or third base during his home run trot, under the theory that since it was a different umpiring crew, how could they possibly know for sure that he did? Head Umpire Davey Phillips countered this move by producing a signed affidavit by the previous umpiring crew stating that they saw Brett touch all the bases.

In any event, whether sportswriters and fans are correct in their recollection of MacPhail’s decision in the Pine Tar Game, it did not matter to Bud Selig, who determined not to overturn Joyce’s call at first base (and thereby earning himself the “Worst Person in the World” distinction by Keith Olbermann on the June 3, 2010 edition of Countdown with Keith Olbermann).

Thanks to Mike Lupica and the Daily News for the quotes! And thanks to Major League Baseball’s rule book for the rules!

BASEBALL LEGEND: Dodgers All-Star Catcher Russell Martin uses an interesting initial on the back of his jersey in honor of his mother.

STATUS: True

With all the recent discussion regarding jersey companies making typos on baseball jerseys, when you look at the back of Dodger All-Star catcher Russell Martin’s jersey and see “J. Martin,” you’re certainly likely to think, “Oh, someone screwed up.”

However, that is not the case - it is an intentional change meant to honor his mother.

Martin’s “traditional” full name is Russell Nathan Martin, so again, at first glance, it doesn’t make sense. But Martin does not just have one name between his first and last name. His full name is Russell Nathan Jeanson Coltrane Martin.

The Russell is after his father (Martin is Russell Martin, Jr.).

The Nathan is after his grandfather.

The Coltrane is also after his father (his dad is a big jazz fan).

The Jeanson, however, is after his mother, as that was her last name, Suzanne Jeanson.

And before the 2009 season, Martin decided that since he was honoring his father by way of his last name, he ought to also honor his mother, so he began going by her last name as his initial on his jersey.

So J. Martin.

Isn’t that a real sweet thing for a son to do for his mom?

Odd, but sweet!!

BASEBALL LEGEND: Two batters were thrown out arguing strikes…on the same at-bat!

STATUS: True

Just a few weeks ago, Cincinatti Reds slugger Scott Rolen and his manager Dusty Baker were both ejected within seconds of each other for both arguing over the same call - a called strike three that looked like it was ball four.

It was strange to see a player and a manager ejected arguing about the same strike call.

However, that was nothing compared to what umpire Augie Donatelli did in August of 1952 when he threw out two batters…in the same at-bat!

Donatelli was always known for having a bit of a quick trigger finger as an umpire (and he was very dramatic with HOW he ejected players), but he really took the cake when the St. Louis Cardinals hosted the New York Giants on August 23, 1953.

Giants third baseman Bob Elliott was up towards the later stages of the game with the Giants trailing 3-0. Elliott did not like Donatelli’s call on strike two. Donatelli ran him from the ball game.

Fair enough.

So Bobby Hoffman is sent into the game to finish the at-bat.

And Hofman is called out on a called strike three. Hofman ALSO doesn’t like the call, and Donatelli runs HIM from the game!

Yep, two batters from the same game!

Davey Williams had to come into the game defensively the next inning to play second with Hank Thompson moving to third from second.

On top of the ejection, Elliott also got the strikeout!

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

Let’s begin!

SOCCER/FOOTBALL LEGEND: 40,000 prostitutes enter the country hosting the FIFA World Cup.

STATUS: False

Let me know if this sounds familiar to you. A country is worried about “the invasion of ’sex-workers,’ who are expected to flood the country next year to cater for male soccer fans” while “The event’s organisers are expecting at least 40,000 prostitutes to descend” on the country to meet demand.

If you said that that sounds like discussions surrounding this year’s FIFA World Cup in South Africa, you would basically be correct. Those quotes generally do describe the mood in South Africa regarding the influx of prostitutes via trafficking rings (to get such large numbers of incoming prostitutes, trafficking rings involving forced prostitution would have to be involved). However, those quotes are actually from five years ago, in an article by Tony Paterson for The Independent in reference to how Germany was going to handle the “invasion” of prostitutes to the 2006 FIFA World Cup that was held in Germany.

But if you look at an article last month written by Iva Skoch for the Global Post, “South Africa’s Drug Central Authority estimates 40,000 sex workers will trickle in for the event from as far as Russia, the Congo and Nigeria to cater to the wide taste spectrum of some 400,000, mostly male, visitors and their apres-soccer needs,” it cannot be a coincidence that the same exact numbers mentioned for Germany in 2006 are being mentioned in 2010 in South Africa.

What’s interesting is that we can actually more or less pinpoint where the “40,000″ figure came from in 2005. In Autumn of 2005, the first major public discussions took place about the sex trade in connection to the World Cup, and the German Womens’ Council made a statement that there would be “more than 30,000″ sex workers coming into Germany for the World Cup. As German authorities were in the midst of debunking even this claim, the “more than 30,000″ turned to “up to 40,000″ in the German newspaper taz before becoming “40,000″ in the German magazine Emma. It was this last figure that was picked up by the international media (and international organizations like the American Coalition Against Trafficking in Women) and soon there was a good deal of hype in Germany over the 40,000 figure.

The hype was so great that the German government, who were sure that the 40,000 estimate was grossly out of sync with reality, were pressured to spent millions of Euros in a quest to ferret out such cases of forced prostitution (voluntary prostitution is legal in Germany). Ultimately, when the Council of the European Union prepared a study in 2007, they discovered about 100 instances of people trafficked into Germany in 2006, only five of which were connected to the World Cup! In addition, the brothels of Germany did not even report heavy increases in sales, as it appeared that the demographics of the World Cup actually steered more towards families visiting the games, not single men.

It seems as though the 40,000 figure from Germany was just transposed on to South Africa, which actually breaks a pattern, of sorts, that Brendan O’Neill of Spiked noted back in March of this year. The rumors of importing sex workers for major sporting events is nothing new - the rumors were 10,000 sex workers being smuggled into Australia for the 2000 Olympic Games, then 20,000 sex workers being smuggled into Greece for the 2004 Olympic Games and then 40,000 for the 2006 World Cup. As O’Neill jokes, making up a rumor of 40,000 imported sex workers for the 2010 World Cup is practically a sign of great restraint considering the doubling that took place in the events before!

In the case of South Africa, once again we can pretty much pinpoint where the silliness got started. Look back at the earlier article I quoted by Iva Skoch. Note how she cites “South Africa’s Drug Central Authority?” Most articles on the topic do the same thing, cite the Drug Central Authority. Well, in an earlier article by the Telegraph, the head of South Africa’s Drug Central Authority, David Bayever, is quoted as saying “We’ve been told by event organisers that they are aware of about 40,000 new prostitutes being recruited to come into the country for the World Cup.” You see? It goes from Bayever saying that he was told by people that there were going to be 40,000 prostitutes coming into South Africa to it then being Bayever who is saying it. This twisted form of the “telephone game” is how a number that was basically pulled from thin air ends up being attributed to the South African government and proliferated throughout the international media.

How off is the 40,000 figure? As Les Carpenter recently reported for Yahoo Sports, the South African government is basically laughing at these figures. They have not seen any substantial rises in the number of prostitutes in South Africa nor of any trafficking rings. There has been some rise in prostitution, of course, no one is suggesting that major month-long events like the World Cup attract no increase in prostitution needs, just nothing remotely close to the figures bandied about. In fact, some of the increase is actually a result of the reports, as the word spreads that there is the need for prostitutes in South Africa so some prostitutes from neighboring countries make the trek hoping to make a lot of money. But these prostitutes will likely find the pickings relatively slim. Heck, even in the article by Skoch, a prostitute interviewed who did come to South Africa is quoted as saying “Work has been slow” (granted, that was before the Cup began)!

The real shame is that there are some serious issues at play here in South Africa regarding prostitution, particularly the heavy rate of HIV infection among sex workers (the HIV rate is bad among the general population - among the sex worker population it is quite depressing). And yet those issues are being almost minimized over the hysteria caused by the make-believe statistics designed more for easy headlines than for anything else. Although, in the case of South Africa, at least, the hysteria did lead to the donation of millions of condoms, so something good came out of the invented statistics!

Thanks to all the journalists I cited above, and special thanks to the International Organization for Migration, who did a great study on the 2006 World Cup, in particular interest to me was a section on the evolution of the “40,000″ figure.

Also, in a foolish omission on my part, I left out Laura Agustin, an immigration expert who has served as the source for a number of articles on the above topic.

Here are some other articles by Agustin on the subject from her website: a story on the sex-football connection, one about African sex workers going to South Africa and a 2010 World cup piece she did. Thanks, Laura!

SOCCER/FOOTBALL LEGEND: A US player played for Puerto Rico in 2008 international play.

STATUS: True

Taylor Graham currently plays for the Seattle Sounders in the American professional soccer league, Major League Soccer.

Graham was born in California in 1980.

In 2008, he was approached with an intriguing offer - due to a sort of loophole in the rules for making up international rosters, Puerto Rico, as an independent territory of the United States, still qualified in a way as part of the United States. So if a citizen of the United States chose to play for Puerto Rico, they could, even if they had no other connection to the country.

Graham was approached because he was a very good player who was likely just not good enough to be recruited for the actual United States international team, but he would be one of the top players for a Puerto Rican national team - a national team that had not won a game in international play in over a decade!

After a lot of soul-searching (he did not wish to be viewed as anti-American) and checking with his Sounders coach, Graham agreed and went to Puerto Rico to train for the exhibition matches that would be on the way to the qualifying rounds for the 2010 World Cup.

And sure enough, Graham’s addition to the team was helpful. In March of 2008, in a friendly against Bermuda, Puerto Rico gained their first international victory since 1994! And guess who scored the first goal? You guessed it - Graham!

After a few more surprisingly competitive games, the North American Soccer Federation stepped in and “clarified” their eligibility rules - now you would have had to have lived in Puerto Rico for two years or be of Puerto Rican descent to be able to play for Puerto Rico, so Graham was no longer eligible to play for the team, so his strange journey as a Puerto Rican soccer player came to an end shortly after it began.

At least due to the decision, Graham’s earlier renunciation of his rights to play for the US was also disallowed. So while he’ll probably be too old to make the the 2014 US national team, he’s at least eligible!

SOCCER/FOOTBALL LEGEND: A player got a yellow card for faking an injury - however, the player was DEAD!

STATUS: True

Something that football often gets criticized for is the way that players attempt to draw fouls on each other by acting as though simple contact (that happens as a matter-of-fact in a game of football) was egregious contact. You know, someone bumps a player and the said player goes flying as if he were just hit by a truck.

The common term for it is “flopping” and while it is a problem in the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, it is most associated with the world of association football.

It is seen as such a problem that they even came up with rules against it.

Soccer uses a “yellow card” system, where every time an egregious rule violation takes place the referee gives the player a “yellow card.”

If you get two yellow cards, you are then given a red card and you are ejected from the game and your team must play with one less player (in other words, unlike a basketball player who has been ejected from the game, you cannot substitute a replacement for the ejected player).

Here’s England star player Wayne Rooney getting a yellow card…

Here are the things you can give a yellow card for…

1. Unsporting behaviour
2. Dissent by word or action
3. Persistently infringing the laws of the game
4. Delaying the restart of play
5. Failing to respect the required distance of a corner kick or free kick
6. Entering or re-entering the field of play without the referee’s permission
7. Deliberately leaving the field of play without the referee’s permission

“Flopping” is specifically codified under rule 1. However, it’s one thing to SAY that you’re going to punish people for flopping and it’s a whole other thing to actually CALL it, as it can often be quite difficult to determine whether a player legitimately fell or is just pretending to be hurt, so frequently the refs hold back the yellow card.

That uncertainty was at play in May of 2010 in a fifth division match between Eastern European club Mladost FC and their local rival team, Hrvatski Sokol.

Before the game, the referees specifically warned the players that they would be calling penalties on what they deemed as play-acting.

Near the end of the first half, Mladost defender Goran Tunjic (32 years old) collapsed to the ground.

With no obvious foul, the referee quickly hit him with a yellow card for flopping (or “diving,” as some people call it).

However, the ref soon realized his error, as you see, Tunjic was DEAD!

He had suffered a massive heart attack during the game and when he collapsed, it was due to that attack and that he died right there on the pitch.

Club officials tried to revive him, but it was too late.

Pretty darn awful.

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