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

BASEBALL URBAN LEGEND: When Rickey Henderson was introduced to his new Seattle Mariner teammate John Olerud, he told Olerud that he reminded him of a player Henderson had played with before. That player was John Olerud.

Rickey Henderson is one of the best baseball players of all-time. And he’s certainly one of the most colorful.

Henderson’s colorful ways and odd manner of speaking (often referring to himself in the third person) has led to tons of amusing stories about him over his long (1979-2003) career, but, as would be expected, for every TRUE story there are likely twice as many false ones.

One particular story played on Rickey’s travels around the league as well as his faulty memory.

Henderson, like other great players, found himself being “forced” to play for different teams at the end of his career in order to keep his career going. Unlike most players, though, Henderson just almost refused to retire, so he ended his career playing for a remarkable seven different teams in his last seven seasons (and that’s only counting the Padres once, who he had two stints with over that time period).

Henderson spent the 1999 season and part of the 2000 season with the New York Mets.

While there, he played alongside John Olerud, who he also had played with for part of a season in Toronto.

Olerud was a great baseball player who stood out from other players for the fact that he always wore a batting helmet, whether he was batting or in the field. This was due to a brain aneurysm he suffered while in college. The fear was that if he were struck in the head as an adult, well, the results would not be good, so he just wore a batting helmet whenever he was on the field.

Before the 2000 season, Olerud signed as a free agent with his hometown Seattle Mariners.

During the 2000 season, Henderson also ended up as a Mariner.

As the story goes:

When he hooked up with the Seattle Mariners last year, Rickey is said to have approached John Olerud, who had once suffered a brain aneurysm, and asked about his unusual practice of wearing a batting helmet in the field. Henderson says, “I used to play with a dude in New York who did the same thing.”

“That was me,” said Olerud, who was Henderson’s teammate with both the Mets and the Blue Jays.

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

AUTO RACING URBAN LEGEND: A monkey once knocked a driver from second to third place in a race.

Tim Flock (1924-1998) was one of the best drivers in NASCAR history, and was on the earliest pioneers of NASCAR (which began having championships in 1949).

Flock was the National Champion in 1952 and 1955.

In 1953, Flock made news for an odder reason when he won a race at the Hickory Motor Speedway – with a monkey as his “co-driver”!

The monkey, known as Jocko Flocko, rode in the car with Flock. The whole thing was a big publicity stunt.

The monkey even had his own special uniform, with a number (#91)…

The publicity stunt went awry two weeks later, though, when Flock was racing in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about auto racing and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the hockey urban legends featured so far.

AUTO RACING URBAN LEGEND: Joe Weatherly once forced a race to change the name of the event before he agreed to race in it.

Joe Weatherly was one of the most superstitious race car drivers ever, so it makes sense that his death actually led to a NEW superstition for race car drivers.

But before that, Weatherly took his superstitions to almost unheard of levels in 1962.

Weatherly began his racing career as a motorcyclist before turning to race cars during the 1950s.

Here’s Weatherly with his 1958 Ford…

In April of 1962, Weatherly, who was deathly afraid of the number 13, was in position 13 at Bristol’s Volunteer 500. He successfully convinced the race officials to change his position to “12A” rather than 13.

But he had a much bigger problem in September of 1962.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about auto racing and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the hockey urban legends featured so far.

AUTO RACING URBAN LEGEND: Race car drivers perspire so much inside the car during a race that they have no need to urinate.

Race car drivers are in their cars for about three hours at a time during a race.

Since they are in there for so long, there is often the question of, “Well, what if they have to go to the bathroom during the race?”

And a particular answer has popped up – that the car inside is so hot that the drivers do not need to urinate because they perspire so much that it is unnecessary.

While there is definitely SOME truth to this, it is not entirely true.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about hockey and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the hockey urban legends featured so far.

HOCKEY URBAN LEGEND: Patrick Roy once decided to just take the puck and skate up at the opposing team’s net.

Patrick Roy is a legendary goalie, one of the best in NHL history.

As a rookie in 1986, he led his team, the Montreal Canadiens, to a surprising Stanley Cup victory. Roy won the Conn Smythe Tropy, becoming the youngest player ever to win the award.

He won a second Conn Smythe when the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1993.

In 1996, Roy grew frustrated with the Canadiens (especially after he felt his coach left him in an 11-1 loss just to humiliate him – usually goalies are pulled from games early on if they look like they just don’t have it that particular day) and demanded a trade.

Roy actually grew up a fan of the Quebec Nordiques, so it’s amusing that he was traded not to the Nordiques, but to the Colorado Avalanche, which is the name the Nordiques took after they moved to Colorado in 1995.

He was a star for the team as they won two Stanley Cups in 1996 and 2001. In 2001, Roy won his third Conn Smythe Trophy (the only player to ever win three).

In any event, as established, Roy is a bit of a feisty guy, prone to getting irritated.

So on one Sunday against the New York Rangers in November of 1997, Roy’s feistiness came out in an amusing fashion.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about hockey and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the hockey urban legends featured so far.

HOCKEY URBAN LEGEND: Eric Lindros was once traded to two different teams at the same time.

Going into the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, 18-year-old Eric Lindros was one of the most hyped prospects in the history of the National Hockey League, drawing comparisons to such legendary prospects as Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky.

What made Lindros stand out from most other skilled forward prospects was his imposing physicality – as an 18-year-old he was already able to brutalize men much older than he (typically, that sort of ability comes to a player as he grows older and fills out his physique) on TOP of his abilities as a scorer.

So Lindros was the obvious pick for the #1 overall draft pick in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft.

The only problem was WHO held the draft pick.

The Quebec Nordiques were not exactly a marquee NFL franchise, and when you couple in the fact that players on the Nordiques could expect to hear a lot of French spoken, Lindros did not want to play for the Nordiques and he informed them that they he would NOT play for them if they drafted him (the next three draft picks were owned by teams from the United States – the San Jose Sharks, New Jersey Devils and the New York Islanders).

The Nordiques called his bluff and picked him anyways.

True to his word, though, Lindros refused to sign with them and went back to the Canadian Hockey League in 1992 (and played for Team Canada in the 1992 Olympics – remember, this guy was that good).

By the next year, the Nordiques relaxed a bit on their initial pledge to never let him go if he would not sign with them (you would have to presume that the NHL as a whole probably flexed a little muscle on the Nordique ownership to just trade the guy already).

For a player of this stature and youth, teams all over the NHL were lining up to throw loads of marquee names, draft picks and money at the Nordiques. And the Nordiques were ready to deal…but perhaps TOO ready, as you’ll soon find out!
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about hockey and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the hockey urban legends featured so far.

HOCKEY URBAN LEGEND: The H on the Canadien’s jerseys stands for “Habitants”

The Montreal Canadiens’ team nickname is the Habs, which is short for “Les Habitants,” which is the term used for the French settlers of Quebec, whose largest city is Montreal.

And as such, the story has gone out that the H on the Canadiens’ jerseys stands for Habitants (or rather, Habs).

That story is aided by the fact that then-owner of Madison Square Garden, Tex Rickard, said in 1924 that the H did, in fact, stand for “Habitants.”

That might very well explain how the NICKNAME got started, but Rickard was way off on what the H stood for.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the baseball urban legends featured so far.

BASEBALL URBAN LEGEND: Tony Horton had an amusing response to being retired by Steve Hamilton on a trick pitch.

Steve Hamilton played for the Minneapolis Lakers for two seasons, 1958-1960, before going into professional baseball.

Hamilton had a decent career as a reliever and spot starter. Also, he was featured in Studs Turkel’s great book, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, which was a survey of various jobs in America in the early 1970s.

In 1970, towards the end of his career (1972 was his last season), he pitched the ninth inning of a game at Yankee Stadium against the Cleveland Indians that the Yankees were losing 7-2.

With the game more or less out of reach, Hamilton had a little fun with the first batter, Tony Horton. Hamilton had a pitch that he called the “Folly Floater,” which is an “eephus” pitch. That is, a pitch that is like the word “eephus,” basically nothing. It’s just a lobbed pitch. The strategy behind it is the idea that if the batter is not expecting it, it, it can sometimes catches him unaware and go for a strike.

Even when a batter IS aware of it, it can cause problems, as was seen that June day in 1970. Horton fouled off the “Folly Floater” then actually asked Hamilton to throw it again! Hamilton, to the amusement of the crowd, complied and threw it again.

Hamilton popped it up and Yankee catcher Thurman Munson made a great catch on the pop up for the out. What happened next is baseball comic genius!
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the baseball urban legends featured so far.

BASEBALL URBAN LEGEND: Wally Joyner was hit by a bowie knife thrown at him by a fan in Yankee Stadium.

Wally Joyner came out of (seemingly) nowhere in 1986 to help lead the California Angels to the postseason for just the third time in club history.

Joyner was the starting first baseman in the 1986 All Star Game (how he got more votes than Don Mattingly is still beyond me) and if it weren’t for Jose Canseco, Joyner surely would have been named the Rookie of the Year (1986 was freaking STACKED with great rookies – other players who debuted in 1986 include Barry Bonds, Greg Maddux, Mark McGwire, Barry Larkin, Kevin Brown, Will Clark, David Cone, Rafael Palmeiro and a fellow who was playing all the way until LAST SEASON, Jamie Moyer – and that’s not even counting Andres Galarraga who, like Canseco, debuted in 1985 but was still technically a rookie in 1986).

In fact, for all I know, maybe it was a disgruntled Mattingly fan that was responsible for the shocking moment of violence that happened when the Angels were visiting the Yankees in August of 86.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the baseball urban legends featured so far.

BASEBALL URBAN LEGEND: Roger Bresnahan invented the shin guard.

Although you may have never heard of him, Roger Bresnahan is in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

Bresnahan was a fine catcher (he was versatile enough to have played all nine positions!) for many years (I believe 17 in total) and a good baseball player, just not one good enough to make the Hall of Fame typically.

He mostly made it because he was very popular among sportswriters and fans.

Heck, Ogden Nash even included him in his famous 1949 baseball poem, Lineup for Yesterday, for crying out loud!

B is for Bresnahan
Back of the plate;
The Cubs were his love,
and McGraw his hate.

It is surprising that Nash couldn’t find someone other than Bresnahan for B. To put it into context, A was for Grover Cleveland Alexander, C was for Ty Cobb, D was for Dizzy Dean and B is for Roger Bresnahan?!!?

How odd.

In any event, Bresnahan passed away in 1944 and was elected to the Hall of Fame the next year by the Veterans Committee (if you’re thinking sympathy vote, you’re most likely correct).

However, the one thing that I suppose you could think of for his Hall of Fame case is that he invented the shin guards that catchers wore to protect their, you know, shins.

But DID he?
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