One reason why I love baseball is that it has charm, a dimension of suitable silliness that simply does not exist in any other organized sporting competition. Today's exhibit: Dave Bresnahan. Some readers may know him better as "the potato guy".
In 1987, hanging on as a backup catcher in AA level on a cellar-dwelling team, Bresnahan contrived to break the tension of the end of a long summer. He decided to pull a prank play, throw something to third base, and deliberately miss the fielder, to trick the runner into breaking for home, where Bresnahan would have the ball and tag him out. He decided to use a peeled, carved potato as the doppelganger ball. The play worked, but when the potato was pointed out, the umpire awarded the runner home plate, and the game continued. The story has only grown in the 20 years since. The potato is now preserved by the folks at The Baseball Reliquary.
Great story, yes? It gets better. Bresnahan's old team (he was released the next day, and his baseball career was over), the Williamsport Bills (now the Crosscutters), recently gave away bobbleheads of Dave Bresnahan, throwing a potato.
Bobble Dave, spud in hand.Last year, the Portland Beavers gave away bobbleheads of former Vancouver Canadians player Rodney McCray, in honor of his legendary crashing through the outfield wall (link to video) in Portland in 1991.
McCray crashes through a wall panel, just like in real life.And you just don't get these sorts of things in other sports -- not the antics or events, not the legends afterwards, and certainly not the decade anniversary celebrations (no matter how silly or small; the point is, these things get remembered).
And that's one reason why I love baseball. Even the ridiculous bits of history are there to be looked back upon, and commemorated again later.
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