Out-Of-Left Field Baseball Trivia: Hundreds of Facts & Figures for the Truly Di

by Robert Obojski

The salaries have gone up and some of the rules have changed, but one thing remains the same, baseball is followed by legions of devoted, loyal fans. But there's a lot more to the game than home runs and double plays. Some strange and downright wacky incidents have occurred on and off the field.Now you have box seats to all the crazy action! Check out bizarre plays, hilarious bloopers, and intriguing events like Jimmie Foxx hit a line drive so hard, it broke the back of a wooden seat 435 feet away. Walter Carlisle is the only outfielder to have pulled off an unassisted triple play. An errant foul tip pitched by Bob Feller struck his mother on Mother's Day. The now famous words, "He had larceny in his heart, but lead in his feet," was penned after lumbering runner Ping Bodie was gunned out by a mile trying to steal a base. Normally a good fielding pitcher, Yankee Tommy John committed 3 errors on one play, en route to a 16-3 win for his 285th lifetime victory on July 27, 1988. When it comes to baseball at its funniest, this book is all hits and no errors—a grand slam of incredible plays that all happen to be true.

Genres: Baseball

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Frank Schwarz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I invaded my bookshelf to get a taste of sports. An easy, children's read - that captures a spirit of what baseball is - a part of America that is missed.

[Garrett · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are some interesting stories, but the book is so shoddily edited as to make it irritating to read; the errors in it become maddening given how obviously this was thrown together just to fill stockings. Given how many similar books are out there, there's not much reason to pick this one up.