Has a Major League baseball player ever used a fraction as a uniform number?

There are two ways to look at January, you know.

One is, you can look on it as the first full month of winter, with cold weather, the chance for snow and ice, and generally gray days.

Or, you can look on it as bright, cheerful, a new start to a new year, the prospect of spring coming soon and…

Yeah, I know which one I choose.

The best part about any month is, I get to offer you some new trivia, freshly dug up and ready to present!

You know, if you ever want to drop me a line with your thoughts, you can e-mail me at didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com, and I will promptly answer. So write on!

Did you know …

… golf isn’t always a quiet, peaceful game? The game actually carries a rather high risk of injury or death. Among the gremlins that can get you during a game of golf: lightning, power lines, heart attack, heat stroke and the occasional freak injury. For example, in one recorded instance, a golfer was so angry about missing a shot that he swung his club at his caddy, killing the poor man. In another, a player, enraged by a poor shot, broke his club against a tree, and the part that snapped off rebounded and impaled him. (A gentleman’s game. Right.)

… it’s actually illegal to remove a bandage from yourself in public in Canada? (You have to cross into the U.S. to take the bandage off, then go back across the border again.)

… it is illegal in France for a UFO to fly over a vineyard? (Unfortunately for the French, UFOs don’t follow Earth laws.)

… about 27% of all readers skip ahead to see how a book ends before they finish reading it? (Which kind of defeats the purpose, don’t you think?)

… the fur of a tiger isn’t the only part of it with stripes? If you shave off the tiger’s striped fur, you find striped skin. (Consistency is a good thing.)

… the law in Russia makes it illegal to brush your teeth more than twice a day? (No matter how much you may need to!)

… it’s illegal in Idaho for a snake to bite a human on Sunday, unless it’s snowing? (Snakes know this, right?)

… a baseball player wore a fraction as a uniform number? Eddie Gaedel (1925-1961), a man who stood only 3 feet 7 inches tall and weighed just 65 pounds, appeared as a pinch hitter for the St. Louis Browns in a game against the Detroit Tigers on August 19, 1951. Gaedel made his initial appearance in the break between games of that day’s doubleheader, popping out of a papier-mache cake celebrating the 50th anniversary of the American League. But Browns owner, Bill Veeck (1914-1986), a master showman, had other plans for the diminutive ballplayer. In the bottom of the first inning of the second game, Gaedel was announced as a pinch hitter, and he strode to the plate wearing a Browns uniform with the number 1/8 on the back. Needless to say, the appearance of a little person in a Major League ball game caused more than a few eyebrows to go up. The home plate umpire, Ed Hurley (1908-1969), refused to let Gaedel get into the batter’s box until Browns manager, Zack Taylor (1898-1974), showed him a copy of the contract signed between the team and Gaedel. Since the game was on a Sunday, nothing could be done to check the legality of the contract, so Hurley had to let Gaedel come to the plate. Gaedel was under strict orders not to move the bat, and anyway, his strike zone wasn’t much bigger than the baseball itself. Gaedel walked on four pitches and was replaced by a pinch runner. The following day, American League President Will Harridge (1883-1971) declared Gaedel’s contract null and void, and Gaedel’s baseball career was over. Additional trivia note: The Tigers’ pitcher, Bob Cain (1924-1997), and catcher, Bob Swift (1915-1966), had a short conference on the mound about how to handle the situation. Between outbursts of laughter, Swift’s only advice to Cain was, “Keep it low.”

… Albert Einstein was once offered the job of President of Israel? Dr. Einstein (1879-1955) was offered the position in 1952, following the death of the country’s first president, Chaim Weitzmann (1874-1952), even though he was not a citizen of the country. He was flattered and honored, but said he could not accept it. Dr. Einstein claimed he did not have the natural aptitude and experience such a position would require. (A wise man knows his limitations, don’t you think?)

… a platypus does not have a stomach? Already looking like it was designed by a weird government committee, the Australian mammal—which lays eggs, but nurses its young with milk—has a duck’s bill, webbed feet, a tail like a beaver and the males have spurs like a rooster. But inside, it’s even weirder. The esophagus of a platypus connects directly with its intestines, with no stomach present at all. (Yes, I had the guts to say that.)

… your allergy to chocolate might not be to chocolate? The Food and Drug Administration allows up to 60 insect pieces per one hundred grams of chocolate, and one of the insects that loves chocolate is the cockroach. Yeah. You may be allergic to cockroaches, not to chocolate. (I can’t stand the little boogers anyway, allergy or no.)

… the shortest will ever admitted to probate in English was three words long? In 1906, a will was admitted to probate in England which read, “All for mother.” But the shortest ever was only two words: “Vse zene,” Czech for “all to wife.” Karl Tausch (1902-1967) of Hessen, Germany, wrote the words on his bedroom wall as he felt himself dying. I don’t worry about such things; I don’t have anything to leave behind but bills.)

Now … you know!

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