My Weird School Fast Facts: Sports Read online

  Dedication

  To Emma

  Contents

  Dedication

  The Beginning

  Chapter 1: Baseball

  Chapter 2: Football

  Chapter 3: Soccer

  Chapter 4: Basketball

  Chapter 5: Hockey

  Chapter 6: Golf

  Chapter 7: Automobile Racing

  Chapter 8: The Need for Speed

  Chapter 9: Other Sports

  Chapter 10: The Olympics

  Chapter 11: More Weird Sports Facts

  The Ending

  Back Ad

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Books by Dan Gutman

  Credits

  Photo Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  My name is Professor A.J. and I love sports.

  Ewww, I said it! I said the L word! Ugh, disgusting. I think I have to go take a shower.

  But the truth is that sports are the only things in the history of the world that I truly love. How come? In sports like football and hockey, you get to knock guys on their butts. In baseball you get to slide into home plate and knock the catcher on his butt. In basketball you get to dribble the ball down the court, charge in for a lay-up, and knock the defender on his butt. Knocking guys on their butts is fun.

  Well, not as much fun as eating candy, but still fun.

  The other cool thing about sports is counting how many times the players spit. Those guys spit all the time! I like to watch games on TV and keep track to see which team spits the most. That’s just as much fun as keeping the real score.

  Now just wait one gosh-darned minute there, Arlo!

  Oh no! It’s Andrea Young, this annoying girl in my class with curly brown hair. She calls me by my real name because she knows I don’t like it.

  Yes, my name is Andrea, and I love sports, too. But knocking people down is mean, and dangerous. And spitting in public is disgusting.

  I’ll tell you what I love about sports. It’s the mystery of not knowing how a game is going to end. When you go to the movies, you can usually tell in the first five minutes exactly how the story is going to end. The good guy’s going to win. The bad guy’s going to lose. The man and the lady are going to fall in love. It’s so predictable. But in sports you never know for sure who’s going to win until the game is over. That’s what I love about sports. It’s a big mystery.

  Just ignore her. Andrea thinks she is so smart. She knows nothing about sports. Why can’t a truck full of bowling balls fall on her head?

  I, Professor A.J., will tell you everything you need to know about sports. For instance, did you know that the first sports were played by cavemen?

  It’s true! You see, back in caveman days a million hundred years ago, there was this guy named Ug. He came out of his cave one day with a club in his hand. He was going to go kill a dinosaur so he could have something to eat for dinner. But the next thing that happened was that some other caveman threw a rock at him for no reason. What a jerk, right?

  So anyway, Ug took his club, swung it at the rock, and whacked it over the fence even though they didn’t have fences in those days.

  And that’s how baseball was invented.

  You made all that stuff up, didn’t you, Arlo?

  Well, yeah. But I do know a lot of true stuff about sports, too. True, weird stuff. So if you want to know all that true, weird stuff, there’s just one thing you have to do. Turn the page!

  Hey, we’re not going to do everything for you.

  Yours truly,

  Professor A.J.

  (the professor of awesomeness)

  Andrea Young (I’m in the gifted and talented program.)

  Some people have no luck at all. During a game in 1957, Richie Ashburn of the Phillies hit a foul ball that flew into the stands and hit a lady named Alice Roth in the head. It broke her nose.

  That was bad enough. But then, as Alice was getting carried away in a stretcher, Ashburn fouled off the next pitch. Guess where it went? Yeah, it sailed into the stands and hit Alice. It broke a bone in her knee!

  That lady was not having a good day.

  Deion Sanders is the only person in history to hit a home run in a Major League Baseball game and score a touchdown in the National Football League in the same week!

  The most valuable baseball card in the world is a Honus Wagner card from 1909–10. In perfect condition, it’s worth more than two million dollars.

  If you ever find one of those cards, there’s one thing you should do with it right away—give it to me.

  Why do they call it a “bullpen”?

  A tobacco company named Bull Durham used to put billboards in the shape of a bull on the outfield walls of ballparks. Because relief pitchers took their warm-up tosses in the shade of those big Bull Durham signs, the pens they warmed up in came to be called “bullpens.”

  While many professional baseball players today make millions of dollars each year, the most money the legendary Babe Ruth ever earned in one season was eighty thousand dollars. If the Babe played today, he would probably make a million hundred dollars.

  Of course, he would also be over a hundred years old. So forget about that idea.

  Do you know how Babe Ruth kept cool on really hot days?

  He put a wet cabbage leaf under his cap. That’s true! Every few innings he would put a new one in there. So be thankful that we have air-conditioning now. If we didn’t, you might be walking around with vegetables on your head.

  Babe Ruth at bat, c. 1923

  Gaylord Perry was a great pitcher, but he wasn’t a very good hitter. One day San Francisco Giants manager Alvin Dark told some reporters, “They’ll put a man on the moon before Gaylord Perry hits a home run.”

  Then, in July 1969, just a few minutes after Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on the moon, Gaylord Perry hit his first career home run.

  Why does a curveball curve?

  Actually, all pitches curve. Even fastballs curve. They curve because the pitcher spins the ball as he throws it. When the ball spins, the flow of air around it is disrupted by the seams. One side of the ball spins in the same direction as the air rushing by it. The other side of the ball spins against the wind. This causes a difference in air resistance on either side of the ball, and the ball curves.

  See, you learned something here today.

  Cincinnati Reds player Johnny Bench could hold seven baseballs in one hand. That would come in handy when his wife asked him to take out the garbage, because Johnny could say, “I can’t do that right now, honey, because I have my hands full.”

  Why are left-handers called “southpaws”?

  Back in the days when baseball was played mostly in the afternoon, ball fields were laid out so the setting sun would not shine in the batter’s eyes. For this reason, home plate was positioned to the west. Facing the plate, the pitcher’s left hand was on the south side, so lefty pitchers came to be called “southpaws.”

  Or so the legend goes.

  Do you know how the Atlanta Braves became the Atlanta Braves?

  Well, they started out in Boston in 1871, and they were called the Boston Red Stockings. Then they became the Red Caps. In the 1880s, they were called the Beaneaters (that’s right, because Boston is famous for baked beans). In 1912, they became the Boston Braves.

  But they weren’t done yet! From 1936 to 1941, they were the Boston Bees. Then they became the Braves again.

  I guess they were exhausted from all those name changes, because in 1953 they moved to Milwaukee and became the Milwaukee Braves. And then, finally, in 1966, they moved to Atlanta and became the Atlanta Braves. Sheesh!

  They should make
up their minds!

  Why is there a seventh-inning stretch?

  According to legend, President William Howard Taft was attending a game one day. In the middle of the seventh inning, he suddenly got up from his seat. Thinking that the president was leaving the ballpark, everyone in the stands stood up to show their respect.

  After stretching his arms and legs (he was over three hundred pounds), Taft sat back down and enjoyed the rest of the game. So did everybody else. And we’ve been doing the seventh-inning stretch ever since.

  Speaking of sitting down, I think you should. Because this is going to blow your mind. Are you ready? Okay.

  At least three Major League Baseball players (Moises Alou, Jorge Posada, and Kerry Wood) stated publicly that they peed on their hands to toughen them up or to prevent blisters and calluses.

  Yes, you read that right. They peed on their hands!

  Yuck! That’s just gross. I think I’m gonna throw up. If you ask me, I’d rather have blisters than a handful of pee.

  Why does home plate have five sides?

  Originally, home plate was a circle, like a plate. In the 1870s, it was made into a diamond, like the field. But umpires had a hard time calling balls and strikes on the corners.

  To correct that problem, those two sides were flattened in 1900 to create the home plate shape we know today. So home plate started out looking like a plate, and now, when you turn it upside down, it looks like . . . a little home.

  In 1998, Sammy Sosa hit an amazing 66 home runs. He hit 63 the next season, and in 2001 he hit 64. Incredible! And do you know how many times Sosa led the National League in homers during those three years?

  NONE!

  It’s true. The first two years Mark McGwire topped him, and the last year Barry Bonds beat him.

  But don’t feel bad for Sammy. He led the league in homers in 2000 and 2002, hitting 50 and 49 those years.

  The song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” was written by Jack Norworth in 1908 after he saw a sign advertising a baseball game at the Polo Grounds in New York City. The amazing thing is, Norworth had never even been to a baseball game.

  In fact, he didn’t attend his first Major League ballgame until over thirty years later!

  There is a rule that Major League umpires have to wear black underwear during games. Why? In case they split their pants!

  If you ask me, it would be a lot easier if they just wore white pants.

  Why is the pitching rubber 60’6” from home plate?

  It used to be closer. But in the 1890s, a pitcher named Amos Rusie threw so hard that it was decided to move pitchers back so hitters would stand a chance against him.

  According to legend, the distance was supposed to be increased from 55.5 feet to 60 feet. But a surveyor’s poor penmanship resulted in the 60’6” distance, and they kept it that way.

  Jim Abbott was one of the most amazing pitchers in the history of the world. He played for ten years, and he threw a no-hitter for the Yankees in 1993.

  But that’s not the amazing part. The amazing part was that Abbott was born without a right hand! For real!

  Luckily, you only need one hand to throw a baseball. And Jim Abbott was left-handed.

  Hoyt Wilhelm, the Hall of Fame pitcher, hit a home run in his first Major League at bat in 1952. He played for another twenty-one years, and he never hit another home run.

  In fact, over a hundred players have hit homers in their first at bats. And twenty-nine of them did it on the first pitch they ever saw.

  Every year, over twenty-one million hot dogs are sold at baseball games. If you took all those hot dogs and lined them up end to end, people would think you were totally crazy. I mean, who goes around lining up hot dogs?

  Why does every ballpark have a different outfield dimension?

  The first Major League ballparks were built in the middle of large cities. To fit the fields and all the seats in, the parks had to be built between existing city streets. They couldn’t move the streets, so they made the outfield dimensions different depending on the shape of the neighborhood.

  What was the worst professional baseball team in the history of the world?

  It had to be the 1899 Cleveland Spiders. They won just 20 games and lost 134. Ouch! Those guys were pathetic.

  It should come as no surprise that the next season, there were no Cleveland Spiders.

  Dave Winfield of the Yankees once killed a seagull while he was warming up during a 1983 game in Toronto! One of Winfield’s throws hit the bird in the air and it died on the spot. I guess it was a “fowl ball.”

  Get it? Fowl? Foul? Ha-ha. That’s a joke.

  Anyway, it wasn’t so funny to Winfield, because after the game he was taken to a police station and charged with cruelty to animals.

  The next day the charges were dropped.

  Why is the spitball illegal?

  There are a few reasons the “spitter” was banned in 1920. Some people believed it was too hard to control, so it was dangerous to hitters. Others believed it hurt the pitcher’s throwing arm. Still others believed that banning the pitch would add more hitting to the game. But most of all, the spitball was banned simply because many people thought it was disgusting and unsanitary.

  As a side note, just two years before, 50 to 100 million people died from a flu pandemic. It was one of the worst natural disasters in human history. So people were really worried about catching diseases.

  The biggest baseball bat in the world is at the Louisville Slugger Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.

  Well, it’s outside the museum. I don’t think they could fit it inside, because the bat is 120 feet long and 68,000 pounds.

  Something tells me that bat will never be used in a game.

  Did you hear about the seventeen-year-old girl who struck out Babe Ruth?

  It happened in 1931. The Chattanooga Lookouts, a minor league team, was playing an exhibition game against the Yankees. Jackie Mitchell, a lefty sensation, was brought in to pitch to Ruth. After ball one, the Babe swung at and missed her next two pitches. The umpire called the next pitch a strike, and Ruth was out.

  To make things even more amazing, Jackie struck out the next batter on three straight swinging strikes.

  His name was Lou Gehrig.

  On May 26, 1993, a baseball hit by Cleveland’s Carlos Martinez bounced off outfielder Jose Canseco’s head and went over the fence for a home run.

  Canseco must have thought he was playing soccer.

  You should have been there! Since you weren’t, search for it on YouTube. It’s hilarious.

  Who invented the game of baseball?

  Just about any dumbhead knows the answer is Abner Doubleday. Well, all those dumbheads are wrong. It’s a myth. That means it’s not true.

  Doubleday was a Union general during the Civil War who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg. He even ordered the first shot defending Fort Sumter in the battle that started the war. But he wrote several books and many letters, and none of them ever mentioned baseball. There is no record of Doubleday inventing baseball or even playing the game in his entire lifetime. He never claimed to have invented baseball either.

  There is one mention of sports in Doubleday’s 1893 obituary. It said he was a man “who did not care for outdoor sports.”

  The shortest player in Major League history was Eddie Gaedel, who was three feet, seven inches tall. His career was also very short. Eddie came to bat one time as a publicity stunt for the St. Louis Browns on August 19, 1951.

  It was the bottom of the first inning. Eddie came out of the dugout swinging a bat. The number on his uniform was ⅛. The pitcher, Bob Cain, laughed. Then he walked Eddie on four straight pitches (Eddie’s strike zone was really small, you see). Eddie was immediately replaced by a pinch runner and jogged off the field to a standing ovation. That was the end of his playing career.

  When Eddie died in 1961, the only MLB figure to attend his funeral was Bob Cain.

  Why do umpires use hand signals for safe, out, and s
trike?

  Back in the 1890s, there was a deaf-mute player named William Ellsworth Hoy. Because he couldn’t hear the ump, Hoy had difficulty keeping track of the count. To solve the problem, he and his teammates asked the umps to come up with signals so Hoy could follow the game better. It turned out the signals helped everybody follow the game better, so they became a part of baseball.

  Footballs are called “pigskins.” Nobody knows why, because footballs are actually made out of cow skin. Do you think the pigs are jealous of the cows?

  If I was a pig and somebody told me that footballs were made from cows, I would be relieved. On the other hand, I probably wouldn’t react at all, because I would be a PIG! As far as I know, pigs and cows don’t understand English.

  By the way, do you know how many cows it takes to make a season’s worth of NFL footballs? Six hundred! That’s a lot of cows. If you took six hundred cows and you put them on a football field at the same time, well, it would really stink up the place, and nobody would want to play football there. That’s a fact!

  Somebody figured out that a cow has a 1-in-17,420,000 chance of being made into a football that gets used in the Super Bowl. Man, the guy who figured that out has too much time on his hands!

  Something tells me that cows don’t want to win that lottery.

  Do you know why football players go into a huddle before each play?

  No, it’s not to keep warm. It was started back in 1892 with a quarterback for Gallaudet University named Paul Hubbard. Hubbard was legally deaf, so he gathered the rest of the team around him so he could hear them without the other team listening in.

  The average NFL game takes around three hours to play. Do you know how much of that time the ball is actually in play? Eleven minutes! The rest of the time the players stand around huddling, spitting, and scratching themselves.

  As of the 2013 season, the average salary paid to an NFL player is about two million dollars a year. Two million! Do you know how much NFL cheerleaders get paid? Seventy to ninety dollars per game. That is totally not fair!