That being said, my absolute favorite Twitter feed comes from Charley "Old Hoss" Radbourn. The dude who is writing his tweets and twats and whatnot is hysterical. A bit of 2010 commentary with 1880's sensibility. He even sponsors his own page on Baseball-Reference.
Gaze below at the statistical flibberdigab that supposedly represent the greatness that was my career. But these numbers are useless: there are no columns for pints consumed, harlots bedded, or blades brandished.What a scoundrel!
Old Hoss was a pitcher for the Providence Grays, Boston Beaneaters (how did that name not stick?), Boston Reds and Cincinnati Reds from 1881-1891. He pitched what is arguably the greatest season by a pitcher ever in 1884 with the Grays, going 59-12 with a league-leading 1.38 ERA. A lot of baseball folks don't pay much attention to stats prior to 1900, but a win is a win. And Old Hoss had more of them in one season than anyone else ever!
But Old Hoss' greatest contribution to our culture? He was the first guy ever photographed flipping the bird.
It's a little small and grainy, but there it is. Old Hoss giving the business to the photographer. Or is that a copy of a daguerreotype? Hmm.
Oh yeah, pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training this week. That sound you hear? My sigh of contentment. Like a big cat purring.
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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. The Charley Horse may have been named after him too. How cool is that?
18 comments:
Twitter.. that place between a lady's fun park and her shitter.
I hate that great blithering shite that is Twitter! With a passion. And you may add that awfie Facebook to the bonfire along with it also.
i knew twitter wasn't for me when every post i did went into the negative asap. it's still there, but... xoxoxo
I love some of the more clever uses for Twitter, like that.
i refuse to acknowledge that twitter exists.
Jimmy - agreed and agreed. It's telling that the only person I really follow on Twitter died over 100 years ago.
Savannah - Yeah, why go negative?
Adam - But there is so much crap to wade through just to find gems like that.
Slyde - it feels the same way about you.
Boston Beaneaters - has a certain je ne sais quoi. Did you know that in certain parts of the world back in matriarchal antiquity men were prohibited from eating beans? They hadn't quite got the hang of the connection between - um - doing it and babies. Must be something to do with beans they concluded and as men can't get preggy, letting them eat beans could deny an ancestor the chance of rebirth.
As this system broke down men started Old Hoss gesturing the social and religious system by ostentatiously eating beans.
Hence beanfeast.
May be something similar going on here ;)
Wabbit - I've never heard of beanfeast, but it sounds like a gas.
Thank you, I'll be here all week!
Old Hoss! That's awesome. :)
Twitter really is idiotic. I have an account, but all I see is people feeling the need to spout off every mundane, idiotic thought they have. It annoys me to no end. Drunk twittering is funny, though. And Sarah Silverman.
there's a twitterer called
'shitmydadsays'
along the same old bastard cranky fun type of lines.
AWESOME THAT BASEBALL IS STARTING UP CAUSE THAT MEANS SPRING WILL BE SOON RIGHT?
beaneaters unite!!
Boston Beaneaters. teehee
(i love that dude flipped the finger in that photo. priceless.)
Sybil - I hate Sarah Silverman. No wait...that's not right. I looooove Sarah Silverman!
Holly - I think I've heard of that fella.
Becky - They should have kept the name, right? By the way, the Pirates were the Pittsburg (no "h") Alleghenys before they were the Pirates from 1882-1890. Cool.
i'm all about impressed that you knew they were the "alleghenys" (and not the "alleghenies"). go you.
did you also know that the pittsburgh steelers were originally the pittsburgh pirates?
p.s. we were only without the h in pittsburgh for a few years. i think something like 1890 to 1911 or 12. i don't know when the city of pittsburgh bought allegheny city and the buccos changed to the pirates. but yeah, there was a bit where there was no h. i'm still all kinds of impressed with you knowing so much about my ball team.
Earl's a machine when it comes to baseball stats and facts. a vertible juggernaught if you will ;)
Becky and Holly - you know about this thing called the internet, right? With it at our fingertips, I don't have to know anything at all. I just have to know where to look.
I did know about the Steelers being called the Pirates at first (and being called the Steagles during WWII when they merged with the Eagles for a few years). The no "h" in Pittsburgh, though? Cool stuff. I dig how the Pirates used the "h" in 1891 when they changed the name even though the city itself wasn't using it until later on.
You know why they are called the Pirates, right? I think we talked about this.
i think. something about a player from philly that we "stole" when there were league issues. we were accused of being like pirates. as a joke we adopted the name and it kinda stuck. is that right?
Becky - Exactly. When they were the Alleghenys they "stole" some players from the American Association and the Philadelphia Athletics. One of them was Lou Bierbauer when the A's left him off of their reserve list, and it basically led to them jokingly referring to themselves as Pirates. It also led to the end of the AA eventually.
i should have known the name of the player we stole considering that we have a bar in the club level named bierbauer's.
and now we have circled back to booze. damn, i love this country!
:)
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