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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 football urban legends featured so far.

BASEBALL URBAN LEGEND: The very first grand slam hit in the major leagues was a two-out, bottom of the ninth, trailing by three, game-winner.

First off, we have to define a term (well, two if you don’t know that a grand slam is the highest scoring play in baseball, resulting in four runs being scored) – “major league.”

The National Association was perhaps the first professional baseball league, but Major League Baseball does not count it as a “major league,” even though the National Association (which was founded in 1871 and folded four years later) was the precursor to the National League (two of the teams from the National Association play today – the Braves and the Cubs, although both went by different names back then). The formation of the National League is considered the formation of a “major league” according to Major League Baseball’s official records.

So yes, Charley Gould DID hit a grand slam for Boston of the National Association on September 8, 1871 (the first year of the National Association). It was the first grand slam ever hit in professional baseball. The pitcher who Gould hit it off of, George Zettlein, previously (on May 8th) gave up the first home run PERIOD hit in the National Association. But if we go with “major leagues” (and I think we should, because it makes the story cooler), then Gould’s grand slam does not count.

So who does that leave? Find out!

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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 football urban legends featured so far.

BASEBALL URBAN LEGEND: Leo Durocher said “Nice guys finish last.”

Leo Durocher (1905–1991) was a baseball player (a three-time All Star shortstop as a player) and manager for a number of teams, most notably the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants. He managed the latter to a 1954 World Series victory. A Hall of Famer, Durocher won 2,909 games, fifth all-time amongst managers.

Durocher was quite a personality. He was known as “Leo the Lip” for the way that he, well, you know, gave people lip. Did his lip say “Nice guys finish last?” Read on…

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With the release in two weeks of my new book, Was Superman a Spy? and Other Comic Book Legends Revealed (see the sidebar to pre-order a copy!), I thought it would be neat to have a site here (and at Entertainment Legends Revealed) where I can discuss other legends revealed!

The way this will work is that each week day I will feature two legends from the world of sports, typically one in the afternoon and one in the evening.

The web site, Snopes.com, is a great reference site for legends. Be sure to check out their various sports legends, because I won’t be featuring any legends that were featured there first (as that would be pretty lame, wouldn’t it?).

On that same point, one of my favorite sportswriters, Rob Neyer, came out with a book recently about Baseball Legends (click here to buy it!). I don’t think that there really would be much overlap between what Rob was doing in that book and what I plan on doing here, but again, just to be sure, if Rob featured a legend in his book, I won’t feature it here (note featured – if Rob mentions something in passing and I pick up on it, that’s different).

You can always reach me at bcronin@legendsrevealed.com to suggest legends to be featured or for any other reason, really.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the site!