11 Comments
Oct 1Liked by Paul Jackson

Another fun & educational article. I never heard of the monkey. Of course I was bummed out to hear about Pete Rose last night. I knew they were gonna screw him over before he passed! It was unfair to say the least. But anyway I loved your story Paul. Thanks again.

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Interesting Paul. And not one mention of what was Hughie Jennings' special talent! Officially, the all-time leader in times hit by a pitch with 287. And befittingly there were a bunch in which he actually tried to get hit as was the custom pre-1900! Maybe his noise then was...OW!

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Thanks Mark! But I must also defend myself--Jennings HBP talents are pointed out in paragraph 2!

But in all seriousness, it's definitely good to emphasize as it speaks to his creativity in his time--it really seems like he realized that getting hit was a way to exploit a market inefficiency in an era not far removed from the time when players could call for what type of pitch they wanted, and long before a bulky elbow guard could help cushion the blows.

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Sorry Paul. My mistake for missing that you of course covered it. Hughie Jennings is an important player to know about!

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Dammit, Paul, thanks for implanting that memorable “When You Know You’re Not Forgotten By the Girl You Can’t Forget” tune in head.

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I have thrown the Spotify algorithm some real curves this year.

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Oct 1Liked by Paul Jackson

Attaboy, Paul. Ee-yah.

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Oct 1Liked by Paul Jackson

And for the whistle it’s really a big deal is it? Today catchers & pitchers are communicating by radio. And don’t get me started on the shortening of the game, bigger bases, blah blah blah, pretty soon they will bring the bases in a few feet or go to 2 outs/inning. The game will be under an hour then.

Sorry got off track Paul!

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I enjoyed learning that, in 1907, using a whistle constituted a "mechanical" method of coaching. I am sure they just didn't like it because it was really annoying and obnoxious--he only blew it after guys got on base, it's not like he was blowing codes or anything like that. I do wish we had records of what he sounded like chattering out in the box--there really was a code system there. It's amazing what creative people could come up with when they couldn't just talk via bluetooth!

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Sep 30Liked by Paul Jackson

I don’t know where you find these, Paul but I love these stories. Thinking about the ostensible luck Jennings’ whistle brought Detroit, it made me think about baseball’s history of superstitions. I saw this in Wikipedia: https://search.app/?link=https%3A%2F%2Fen%2Em%2Ewikipedia%2Eorg%2Fwiki%2FBaseball%5Fsuperstition%23%3A%7E%3Atext%3DSome%2520of%2520the%2520more%2520common%2Cholds%2520for%2520fans%2520and%2520announcers%2E&utm_campaign=57165%2Dor%2Digacx%2Dweb%2Dshrbtn%2Diga%2Dsharing&utm_source=igadl%2Cigatpdl%2Csh%2Fx%2Fgs%2Fm2%2F5

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A great share, Meg, thank you. It's a fun subject. I've actually been going through stories on superstitions and posting them on TwitterX to talk about what superstitions players have held onto at different points of time. For example, for many decades, seeing a load of empty wooden barrels was apparently bad luck, unless you tipped your cap (not a big deal these days but back then it seems like empty barrels were everywhere)!

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