Failure™ Magazine

Quirkiest Baseball Failures II

Part two of Failure magazine's two-part series.

Written by Failure magazine staff   Filed under Sports

April 1, 1985: Sports Illustrated publishes an article by George Plimpton entitled “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch,” which chronicles the story of a 28-year-old New York Mets pitching prospect capable of throwing a 168 mph fastball. Equally notable, the gangly, six-foot-four hurler pitches wearing a heavy hiking boot on one foot while the other remains bare. The article also reveals that Finch (portrayed in photographs by Joe Berton, a junior high school art teacher from Illinois) is torn between making a living as a big league pitcher and a career playing the French horn. Countless SI readers, media types, and baseball insiders fall for the hoax before word spreads that the first letters of the article’s subhead—He’s a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd’s deciding about yoga, and his future in baseball—spell out “Happy April Fools Day.”

May 29, 2004: The Brockton (Mass.) Rox—a minor league baseball team based 25 miles south of Boston—schedules Grady Little Appreciation Night for this date and plans a promotion that includes the distribution of 1,000 Grady Little bobble-arm dolls. The doll’s right arm moves up and down (mimicking the signal a manager gives to summon a relief pitcher from the bullpen), something the former Boston Red Sox manager failed to do early enough in a year-earlier loss to the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS. The promotion is canceled after the team is besieged by angry phone calls from Red Sox fans still frustrated by Little’s mistake.

September 7, 1974: After hitting a home run in his first at-bat in a game against the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees third baseman Craig Nettles connects for a broken-bat single, leaving Tigers catcher Bill Freehan to scramble for the super balls that come bouncing out of the splintered lumber. Nettles is called out on the play, but his home run is allowed to stand and the Yankees win 1-0.

April 17, 2009: Washington Nationals players Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman play part of a game against the Florida Marlins wearing jerseys with the team nickname spelled as “Natinals.” Later, the uniform company takes the blame for the errors: “All of us at Majestic Athletic want to apologize to both the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for accidentally omitting the ‘o’ in two Nationals jerseys,” says Majestic Athletic president Jim Pisani in a statement.

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