16 Comments
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Museum of Baseball Wire Photos's avatar

The Mets in the early 70s had a sprawling tomato patch in their bullpen, just beyond the transparent part of the outfield wall.

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Paul Jackson's avatar

Yes they did! I discovered that while prepping this piece. And Earl Weaver and the groundskeeper in Baltimore had a contest growing to see who could grow a better plant. It was kind of a movement.

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Matt Schlichting's avatar

Never, ever turn away a volunteer tomato. I’m going to blame that one on a bird depositing the seed.

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Paul Jackson's avatar

More like a "Horton Hears a Who"-type situation--totally makes sense.

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George H.'s avatar

Yeah, but Fidrych didn’t arrive until’76. 😃

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Paul Jackson's avatar

Brilliant. Willie Horton was there at least.

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Melissa Meg Lauber's avatar

I’m definitely on team ketchup! I actually have never known anyone who said catsup and am wary of any brand which uses that on their bottles (Hunts)!

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Paul Jackson's avatar

We are in full agreement that Hunts is not to be trusted. Hopefully we'll get someone to represent the "catsup" side of the argument here... I think perhaps catsup is losing the war the same way "pop" is losing. When I was a kid in Illinois we said "pop." No longer.

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Melissa Meg Lauber's avatar

Ha! I grew up calling all soft drinks Coke, as in “get some cokes when you go to the store.” I had friends who said soda, but never lived anywhere where pop was used!

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Jeff's avatar
2dEdited

Only famous outfield plant I knew of was Earl’s in Baltimore but I’m happy to see there are others. Here in Jersey if you plant them you better protect them as the wildlife will get ‘em.

I could never live in Chicago - I see on TV how they have strict rules on their dogs! My eating habits have me putting ketchup on hotdogs sometimes & mustard on burgers. They would find my body in a car trunk.

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Paul Jackson's avatar

For a minute I thought you were talking about strict rules for our canine friends, and really struggling to think what was so strict here. Like, leashes? But yes, the cased meats rules are very strict. At the best hot dog place we go to (Gene and Jude's) they don't even serve ketchup, not even for your fries.

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Bill Southern's avatar

Great story, Paul! It reminds me of a very famous weed which sprouted in a street median just south of Detroit a few years ago - having lived in Toledo for six years, it makes sense to me that a weed is what springs to mind when thinking about Toledo. . .in addition to the Mudhens, of course.

https://www.npr.org/2018/12/19/678144491/a-weed-grows-in-toledo-and-residents-hang-their-christmas-hopes-upon-it

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Paul Jackson's avatar

This is a great add, Bill! I love this story so much. I note that somebody tried to ruin the Christmas weed, too. As Taylor has said, this is why we can't have nice things.

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Take Note Podcast's avatar

This story is so good.

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Paul Jackson's avatar

At least there's enormous potential for a Veggie Tales crossover.

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Sue Shawn Says's avatar

This was terrific.

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