Futility Closet - 296-The Little Giants

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Futility Closet podcast, forgotten stories from the pages of history. Visit us online to sample more than 11,000 quirky curiosities from Mark Twain's poetry to Lewis Carroll's pig puzzle. This is episode 296. I'm Greg Ross.. I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. In 1957, 14 boys from Monterey, Mexico, walked into Texas to take part in a game of Little League Baseball.

Starting point is 00:00:34 What followed surprised and inspired two nations. In today's show, we'll tell the story of the Monterey Industrials and their unlikely path into baseball history. We'll also have dinner for one in Germany and puzzle over a deadly stick. In 1956, the industrial city of Monterey in northeastern Mexico had only two social classes, business owners and workers. The sons of the workers had little to look forward to except one day to follow their fathers into the mills and factories. But late one night, scanning his Sears Silver Tone radio,

Starting point is 00:01:13 a local priest came across an American Major League Baseball game originating from NBC in New York City and rebroadcast in Spanish. He shared his discovery with the boys in his choir, and soon it became a tradition among them to gather around the radio every Sunday to follow their adopted team, the Brooklyn Dodgers. At first, they knew little about the game, but they learned it with time. The Dodgers advanced to the World Series that year, but lost to the New York Yankees in seven games, including a perfect game by Yankees pitcher Don Larson, in which not a single

Starting point is 00:01:44 Dodger batter reached base. The boys began to play barefoot in a dirt field, using a homemade ball, bat, and gloves. At length, as their skills improved, they wanted to form a team to play in Little League, the youth baseball league based in America. Those games were played in big league style, except that the diamond was somewhat smaller, and they played six innings per game rather than nine. They established a team, but in order to participate, they would have to travel across the border into Texas. The priest agreed to travel with them, but said he lacked the experience to serve as their coach. So they enlisted the only local man who knew the game well, Cesar Faz, a machinist at a local glassworks who had once been a clubhouse attendant for the St. Louis Browns.

Starting point is 00:02:27 The team they assembled seemed to have some potential. Nearly all of the players came from poor homes with no running water or electricity, but they shared a natural athleticism, and the best of them approached brilliance, especially a shy 12-year-old pitcher named Angel Macias, who was ambidextrous. He could pitch equally well with either arm. The team found some sponsors and bought uniforms, and on July 28, 1957, the Monterey Industrial Little League team took a five-hour bus ride to the border city of Reynosa. There was no bus service from there to their destination, McAllen, Texas, so they would have to travel the rest of the way on foot.

Starting point is 00:03:00 They crossed the river by a bridge and walked 12 miles through the Texas summer without water or shade to their destination. Angel said later, I remember that walk being really far and you could look for miles and not see anything. It was so hot the rubber on the bottom of our cleats melted and stuck to the roads. But at last they reached their motel half a mile from the ballpark. Under the tournament rules, they would be eliminated with the first game they lost. They expected that would be their very first game, but at least they could spend a day sightseeing before they returned to Mexico. The ballpark had a real grass field, something they had never seen before. For the opening game, Monterey had been paired against Mexico City, nominally another

Starting point is 00:03:39 Mexican team, though half its players were white, the sons of rich Americans who worked south of the border. The Monterrey boys spoke no English, but they'd memorized such phrases as batter up and take your base so that they could understand the officials. After the first inning, Mexico City led by a run, but thanks to a timely home run, Monterrey took the lead and they managed to extend it for a final score of 9-2. Having beaten Mexico City, the Monterey Boys unexpectedly found themselves advancing in the tournament. Next, they'd play McAllen, Texas, the hometown favorite. Angel was nervous at first and couldn't find the strike zone with any of his first eight

Starting point is 00:04:14 pitches, but he gathered his concentration, his performance inspired his teammates, and they won this game as well, 7-1. To call the Monterey Boys underdogs would have been a gross understatement. Their average player weighed only 80 pounds, or 36 kilograms. First baseman Ricardo Trevino was regularly accused of using an oversized glove because it looked so large on his small arm, and some of Monterey's players were so poor that baseball cleats were the first thing they had ever worn on their feet. But their experience in this strange country was drawing them together, and, as backup pitcher Enrique Suarez recalled later, we could not be intimidated by any of our opponents because we had nothing to lose. They continued their winning streak against

Starting point is 00:04:55 the teams from Mission, Texas and Wesleco. The wins were encouraging, but their extended sojourn meant that they were soon running out of money. When a friendly reporter mentioned this in an article, some good Samaritans stopped by the motel to deliver fruit and snacks for the boys, and others shuttled them to a diner that had offered to feed them for free. By their fifth day in the United States, the Monterey boys had beaten every team they'd faced and had won the right to advance to Corpus Christi, farther from home and deeper into a land with an unfamiliar culture where most people spoke a language that they didn't understand. Only one of them had ever been away from home before. The Good Samaritans who had driven them to the diner arranged to ferry them north,

Starting point is 00:05:33 and they faced off against Laredo, Texas in a game that attracted 3,000 people. The Monterey Boys found the crowd daunting at first, since most of the fans were supporting Laredo, but they rallied on the strength of Angel's pitching and Baltazar Charles' bat and won 5-0. With each win, they were gaining confidence. Against their next opponent, West Columbia, Texas, Angel didn't allow a single run, and both Baltazar Charles and Enrique Suarez hit home runs. After the game, the boys went into the stands with their hats turned out for loose change to help finance their trip to Fort Worth for the Texas State Championship. Many fans contributed, but the team's finances were still so low that during the trip, each boy got only half a sandwich and half a container of milk for lunch. As they advanced in the tournament, their opponents grew steadily

Starting point is 00:06:18 stronger. Against Houston in the first game of the state championship, they found themselves losing 4-0 after two innings. They fought back but were still down by a run as they entered the final inning. But Norberto Villarreal hit a game-saving home run, and they won the game 6-4. The next day, when one boy asked why their flag wasn't displayed at the ball field, the coach told each player to look at his neighbor's shoulder during the national anthem. There, the uniform bore the word Mexico, the closest thing to a symbol of their country that they'd brought from home.

Starting point is 00:06:49 At the end of the first inning, Waco was beating them 2-0, but the Houston game had shown them that they could come from behind and win against a strong opponent, and Angel's ambidextrous pitching confounded the Waco batters. They won 11-2. They were now the state champions of Texas and would head to the Southern Regional Championship in Louisville, Kentucky. Beyond their financial hardship, this dreamlike streak landed them in further trouble. On the day before their first game in Louisville, they were placed under house arrest. Their visas had been good for only three days in the United States and had now expired. The U.S. ambassador to Mexico stepped in and got them permission to

Starting point is 00:07:25 stay for 30 days or until they lost, whichever came first. At this point, it was impossible to predict anything. Coach Cesar Faz told a reporter that he didn't know how they would pay their way home. All of this had been unexpected. They were just advancing from game to game and hoping that a solution would reveal itself. The reporter ended his article by writing, admission will be free, but a hat will be handy if you want to help the little Mexicans. In the regional tournament, their first opponent was Biloxi, Mississippi, and the streak held up. Pepe Maiz hit a grand slam home run, the first that the Monterey players themselves had ever seen, and the game became a rout. In the end, Monterey won 13 to nothing. In the next game, they faced Owensboro, Kentucky,

Starting point is 00:08:04 who were heavily favored. The Monterey boys began to cheer, In the next game, they faced Owensboro, Kentucky, who were heavily favored. The Monterey boys began to cheer, but the umpire stopped them. They had only been encouraging their own players, but he said that as they were doing it in Spanish, he couldn't be sure they weren't taunting the other team, which was prohibited. Cesar objected, but was overruled. Still, they won the game 3-0 and won a berth at the 1957 World Series. Angel's pitching was quietly becoming transcendent. He'd struck out 11 batters and come within two pitches of achieving the perfect game that he'd once heard Don Larson pitch for the Yankees. After the game, the boys were mobbed by fans and reporters.

Starting point is 00:08:38 The win meant that Monterey would be traveling even deeper into the unfamiliar country, to Williamsport, Pennsylvania. They made the journey in an old school bus loaned by a Baptist church and arrived to find the city bedecked with posters, flags, banners, and flyers. At their examinations, physician Robert Yasui found that the Monterey boys were 35 pounds lighter and five inches shorter than average, that's 16 kilograms and 12 centimeters. They were so small that the uniforms supplied by Little League didn't fit, and in fact were too large to play in. Monterey Industrial became the only team ever allowed to wear their own uniforms in the Little League World Series.

Starting point is 00:09:15 Only four teams remained in the tournament. Monterey's first opponent was Bridgeport, Connecticut. In the second inning, Fidel Ruiz was hit in the chest by a fastball, but he came back and stole home in the fourth. At the end of that inning, Monterey led 2-0, and though Bridgeport rallied with a home run, it wasn't enough. Monterey won the game and would now advance to the championship. In one month, they had traveled 2,000 miles and won 12 games in a row. But now they would be facing La Mesa, California, the strongest battery of hitters that Williamsport had ever seen. would be facing La Mesa, California, the strongest battery of hitters that Williamsport had ever seen.

Starting point is 00:09:49 Where Monterey had acquired the nickname Los Pequeños Gigantes, or the Little Giants, La Mesa's players were known for their huge size. Monterey shortstop Gerardo Gonzalez was 14 inches shorter and 100 pounds lighter than La Mesa center fielder Dennis Hange. That's 35 centimeters and 45 kilograms. To advance to the California state championship, La Mesa had beaten five teams, outscoring them 40 runs to two. They had six ace pitchers and a team batting average of.408. But the Monterey players were not phased. When asked whether the size of their opponents concerned him, first baseman Ricardo Trevino said, we have to play them, not carry them. 16,000 spectators arrived at a field whose capacity was 10,000. The overflow crowd sat on a long berm behind the outfield. Back in Monterrey, which had been following the

Starting point is 00:10:32 tournament from afar, hundreds of thousands of parishioners lit candles to the Virgin de Guadalupe asking for one more victory. Factories there closed at 1 p.m. and schools and government offices were left empty. Arrangements had been made to relay the play-by-play in Spanish to a Monterey radio station, and many of the city's poorest families went to the boys' original field to watch the empty diamond and imagine the action. Four weeks earlier, the 14 boys had entered the United States expecting to lose their first game and return home. Each had brought only the uniform on his back and a change of underwear in a paper bag. Left fielder Pepe Maiz said later, we didn't even know Williamsport existed. We were just supposed to play a game in McAllen. But as Cesar Faz later found himself writing home in a

Starting point is 00:11:15 telegram, the boys refused to lose. In this game, they stood up fearlessly against the larger Americans, holding the game scoreless for the first four innings, playing the same brand of disciplined, athletic baseball that had brought them this far. Angel Macias said not one word once the game started, but retired one batter after another, and gradually the crowd went quiet. Everyone had expected La Mesa to have a comfortable lead by mid-game, but so far only Monterey had managed to get runners on base. In the fifth inning, Joe McIrahan came up to bat. Incredibly powerful for a 12-year-old, he'd hit more than a dozen home runs during the tournament, two of them the day before. But Angel struck him out, and the next batter as well. McIrahan said later,

Starting point is 00:11:55 My recollection of Angel during the game was that he was sneaky fast. He was the first pitcher we saw who clearly had pinpoint control. Even at 12 years old, you sensed this kid knew exactly where the ball was going. He just dominated us like no one else had come even close to. Up to this point, the crowd had been favoring the California team, but their allegiance began to shift when catcher Norberto Villarreal, with amazing acumen and presence of mind, shadowed a runner to first while his teammates retrieved the ball from the infield and threw him out. Feeling the momentum shift behind them, Monterey began to play more aggressively. In the bottom of the fifth, they got men on first and second,

Starting point is 00:12:30 and Pepe Maiz hit hard, sending the ball between the shortstop and second for a double. Mario Ontiveros rounded third without looking back and scored the game's first run. Now, with the impasse broken, Monterey roared into the fifth, sending nine batters to the plate and scoring four times. Suddenly, with only a single inning left, La Mesa needed four runs to tie the game. In fact, no La Mesa batters had reached base in the whole game. When Monterey first baseman Ricardo Trevino realized this, he went to tell the coach, who told him not to say a word about what was unfolding. Angel struck out one batter, and second baseman Baltazar Charles

Starting point is 00:13:05 barehanded an infield hit to Fidel Ruiz to put out another. That was two outs. Monterey needed only one more to clinch the win. The Williamsport crowd began to chant Angel's name. La Mesa's Byron Haggard came up to bat, and Angel pitched him three balls, then two strikes, a full count. Angel wound up and fired his last curveball at the plate, and Haggard swung and missed. The crowd erupted. 90-pound Angel Macias had retired all 18 batters in order and struck out 11. He had not allowed a single ball to leave the infield. To this day, it's the only perfect game in a Little League World Series championship. The news reached Mexico one minute and 47 seconds later, and Monterey broke out in celebration. The New York Times reported, fire engines raced

Starting point is 00:13:51 through the streets with sirens roaring while crowds milled about the squares singing exultantly. The team went to New York as heroes, staying in a luxurious hotel in Times Square, eating banquets in grand dining rooms and riding in limousines. They visited the Empire State Building, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Bronx Zoo, and Ebbets Field, home of their beloved Brooklyn Dodgers, where Sal Magli tossed a ball with Gerardo Gonzalez, and Roy Campanella gave Norberto Villarreal his spare catcher's glove. At the start of the day's game, the crowd gave them an ovation. They went on to Washington, D.C., where they were congratulated by Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon Johnson, and then to Mexico City, where President Adolfo

Starting point is 00:14:29 Ruiz Cortines gave each of them a trophy. He'd heard about the dirt field they'd started on and told them, the government of the republic will fund the construction of a baseball park in Monterey with the most modern amenities to perpetuate your triumphs. Then, at last, they flew home. As they approached Monterey, they could see that almost the entire population of the city, more than half a million people, had turned out to greet them. When the plane landed, they thronged so close that soldiers had to make an opening so the boys could get out. There they were reunited with their families. Each player had brought a bouquet of flowers for his mother. They were wearing the same uniforms

Starting point is 00:15:03 in which they'd departed. They were driven to the city center in 20 convertibles, and an artillery company fired a 21-gun salute as they arrived at the governor's palace, which had already been inscribed with their names and victories. The city council declared them all distinguished citizens, they were inducted into the Nuevo León Sports Hall of Fame, and each was given a high school and college scholarship to complete his education. The saga of the Monterey industrials passed into the lore of Little League, but in the 2000s, author William Winokur spent four years tracking down all the surviving members of each team for a book called The Perfect Game. He said, a lot of people ask me my favorite anecdote. It wasn't the perfect game, that moment of victory. It wasn't meeting the Brooklyn Dodgers or going to the White House to meet the President of the United States.

Starting point is 00:15:48 The thing that always chokes me up is the walk to McAllen, Texas. It's 12 miles from the bridge to the field. I tried to imagine walking single file for 12 miles in the heat of a Texas summer. When I think about what these kids did, they were walking to lose, not into history. That, to me, is the heart of this story. It's one of the few times when the universe chose to reward the right people. Futility Closet is supported entirely by our wonderful listeners. We just wouldn't be able to keep putting in the amount of time that the show takes to make if it weren't for the donations and pledges we get.

Starting point is 00:16:33 If you'd like to make a one-time donation to help us out, you can find a donate button in the support section of the website at futilitycloset.com. And thanks so much to everyone who has sent us donations. If you'd like to provide more ongoing support for our show, you can join our Patreon campaign, where you'll also get access to some bonus material like outtakes, more discussions on some of the stories, extralateral thinking puzzles, and peeks behind the scenes of the show. You can check out our Patreon page at patreon.com slash futilitycloset, or see the link at our website. And thanks again to everyone who helps support the show. We really couldn't do this without you.

Starting point is 00:17:19 Steve Wrightsey sent a follow-up to the main story in episode 79, about how in 1955, Quaker Oats included in their cereal boxes a deed to a tiny plot of land in the Yukon. Hi, I only discovered your podcast recently, so I'm still way back in 2016. I'm writing in regard to your 79th episode, One Square Inch of the Yukon. My father was a fairly well-known mystery writer under the name of Jack Ritchie, and one of his earliest stories was based on this incident. The story was published in Good Housekeeping in 1959 and was called A Square Foot of Texas. The story begins with the representative of an oil company having to track down and purchase rights from children who'd each gotten ownership of a square foot of Texas through a breakfast cereal promotion in order to build their pipeline through the divided land.

Starting point is 00:18:06 I won't give away the ending, but it's a sweet story, and I attach a PDF scan of the original publication. I really enjoy your podcast and look forward to all the episodes I haven't heard yet. So, interesting that the Quaker Oats promotion was well-known enough to form the basis of a story in a popular woman's magazine. And we'll have a link to the story in the show notes for anyone who wants to read it. It is a rather sweeter story than the topic might suggest, involving orphans and a possible romance.

Starting point is 00:18:33 Just given the little bit you described about it, it sounds like a neat premise for a story. Yeah. Someone has to go track them all down again. Alex Wood sent an email with the subject line, Festive Traditions Adopted adopted abroad plus hermit update. Hi, guys. Speaking of surprising Christmas traditions in different countries,

Starting point is 00:18:51 I hope I'm the first to introduce you to Dinner for One. It's a British sketch which has weirdly become a New Year's tradition in Germany and some of Scandinavia. German friends couldn't believe that I, being from the UK, had never heard of it. Wikipedia promises me that it's the most frequently repeated TV program ever. Also, a hermit update. Stan van Otrecht, the Belgian who took up a position in a hermitage in Austria a couple of years ago, has retired from hermiting. Sadly, Google Translate and a local Austrian news site informed me that the COVID-19 pandemic led to interviews for his replacement

Starting point is 00:19:25 being postponed, and the Hermitage is therefore available, in case there are candidates for the next round listening. Keep up the good work. I look forward to the episode every week. So, Dinner for One, which Alex was the first to introduce us to, is similar to the song Snoopy's Christmas that we first discussed in episode 289, in that this comedy sketch inexplicably became an entrenched tradition in another country while being practically unknown in its country of origin. The 18-minute black-and-white program featuring British comedians Freddie Frinton and May Warden was recorded by the German TV station NDR in 1963 in its original English,

Starting point is 00:20:02 with an introduction in German. The sketch is about the 90th birthday of Miss Sophie, an upper-class English woman who hosts her regular annual dinner for her four friends, even though they are now deceased. Her manservant James impersonates each of the different guests throughout the meal while also serving. This involves James having to consume four alcoholic drinks through each of the four courses of the meal, providing a lot of slapstick humor as he becomes increasingly drunk. An iconic exchange from the sketch, which is repeated several times, is James asking, the same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie? To which she replies, the same procedure as every year, James.

Starting point is 00:20:41 The skit has been shown on German TV on December 31st every year since 1972 and is broadcast several times. For example, a January 2017 article in the Washington Post reports that the show aired 23 times on various German public stations the preceding December 31st and was watched by more than 17 million Germans. A 2018 BBC article says that the English catchphrase, the same procedure as every year, has become an intrinsic part of the German culture and is used in newspaper headlines, general conversation, and even in political debates. Dinner for One is also commonly broadcast in several northern European countries, usually on December 31st. But though the sketch was performed live in the UK from the 1920s or 30s, and at least into the 1960s, its first national TV broadcast there didn't come until New Year's Eve 2018, meaning that most people in the UK were, and mostly still are, completely unfamiliar with

Starting point is 00:21:37 it, as is apparently also the case with the US. And of course, there'll be links to the video in the show notes for anyone who wants to see the skit for themselves. That sounds like it could be equally popular almost anywhere in the world, you know, like why Germany? Yeah, no idea. I mean, I saw lots of people coming up with lots of theories, including that the humor in it was very similar to Prussian humor somehow and struck a chord better in Germany than it did in the UK. I mean, there were all sorts of theories that I saw. I even saw some people suggesting that it's popular to watch on New Year's Eve because the skit is funnier if you're drinking yourself. But it's just, it is funny how it's completely unknown or almost completely unknown in the

Starting point is 00:22:19 country in which it originated and just so popular in other countries. And it's not, I wouldn't think it could just be momentum, like people listen to it or watch it because their parents did or something. Humor doesn't really work that way. Yeah. As for the other topic Alex wrote about, I can't believe that we last covered the Zalfeldin Hermit back in episode 174 in October 2017. But I guess there wasn't much news on that front until recently.

Starting point is 00:22:44 We had covered this topic a few times, starting in episode 139, where I guess there wasn't much news on that front until recently. We had covered this topic a few times, starting in episode 139, where I reported that there was a new opening for a professional hermit in the Austrian town of Saalfelden, and then Alex had let us know that the Belgian Stijn van Otrecht had taken the position, meaning that one of Central Europe's last remaining continuously occupied hermitages would continue to be occupied. The hermit prior to von Otrecht had only lasted one season of April to November. The hermitage isn't safe in the winter, but the Guardian had reported that von Otrecht had long dreamed of becoming a hermit, and cattle smolders had let us know that a Dutch magazine reported that von Otrecht expected to remain the

Starting point is 00:23:23 hermit of Zaalfelden for years to come. Unfortunately, though, for visitors to Saalfelden, von Otrecht did end up retiring after three years, apparently for health reasons and because he wished to become a priest, according to the translated version of the article that Alex sent. And since the interviews for a new hermit had to be canceled due to the coronavirus, that means that as of April, the hermitage is now uninhabited for the first time in its more than 350-year history. So just in case anyone is considering applying once they're able to start interviewing, the position is said to be, according to Google Translate, for a robust Christian who must be a solid person who can handle loneliness in the evening and night, as well as the many people who visit the hermitage during the day.

Starting point is 00:24:07 Living in a mountain hut without electricity, central heating, and running water requires frugality, good physical shape, and skilled craftsmanship. We have previously covered some of Janelle Shane's amusing neural net outputs, such as knitting patterns in episode 251 and recipes and candy heart messages in episode 195. Catherine Fletcher from Oxford, UK wrote, Dear Sharon and Greg, My sons and I have enjoyed listening to you for years. At last, we have something to write you about. I am pasting below a section from a blog by Corey Doctorow, which you can add to the list of things AIs can, but probably shouldn't, attempt. April Fool's Day pranks.

Starting point is 00:24:46 Thank you for keeping going. We really look forward to our weekly updates as a touch of normality in a weird world. Your fans, Catherine, age withheld, Will, 13, Sam, 11, and Tom, 11. So thank you to Catherine, Will, Sam, and Tom, who sent a blog post by Corey Doctorow that says, AI weirdness queen Janelle Shane fed the GPT-2 text processing neural net a short list of April Fool's Day pranks and asked it to suggest more. They are weird. And on Shane's blog, she explains that she had previously trained a simple neural net on a set of April Fool's pranks and found

Starting point is 00:25:23 that most of the ones produced by the algorithm ended up being pranks you would play on yourself. So even though April Fool's Day was canceled this year, for fun, Shane tried using a more sophisticated neural net that had been trained on millions of web pages to suggest new pranks. Some of its suggestions were put a large colorfully wrapped strip of spaghetti in your hot water bath. Put some dill pickles in there as well. Paint the fridge with the red spiders. Put your fear of insects into a lemon. No time for a snack, just draw a heart on the egg carton. Tear up a roll of toilet paper and make toast out of it.

Starting point is 00:26:00 Using a sledgehammer, smash up a handful of raisins and then put them on a tray. Shane asks, self-prank, new hobbies, performance art? And says that it often seemed like the neural net was trying to suggest recipes or life hacks and gives as an example, step 10, fun in the shower. Fill your bathtub with cold water. Take the jar of sawdust out of the freezer. Dump it into the water and stir to add some texture. That's a prank. Yeah,

Starting point is 00:26:26 apparently. Dr. Rowe said of all this in his blog, look, I know April Fool's is canceled, but if you want to put your fear of insects in a lemon, I absolve you. Shane says that there were more pranks generated than she could fit in her blog post, including some that were such very bad ideas that she hesitated to publish them online. But if you're curious and you give her your email address, she'll send them to you. Thanks so much to everyone who writes to us. We always appreciate hearing from our listeners, so if you have any comments, questions, or feedback, please send them to podcast at futilitycloset.com. at futilitycloset.com.

Starting point is 00:27:09 It's Greg's turn to try to solve a lateral thinking puzzle. I'm going to give him an odd sounding situation and he has to figure out what's going on, asking yes or no questions. This puzzle comes from Miles. A man with a stick accidentally kills a man with a log. What happened? Accidentally? Yes. That's the best part.

Starting point is 00:27:28 Okay, a man with a stick accidentally kills a man with a log. Does he kill him with a stick? How do you even start? Not directly. Okay. Seriously, how do you even begin with this? Okay, let's start with the stick.

Starting point is 00:27:44 Okay, by stick is not meant just a fallen tree limb that he picked up off the ground. That is correct. That is not what's meant. It's an implement of some kind. Yes. It's normally used for something other than killing people. Yes. All right, that's progress so far.

Starting point is 00:27:57 Is the killer, can I call him the killer? The guy with the stick? Is his occupation important? Yes. Okay. Is he, the first thing I think of is a pool cue. Is his occupation important? Yes. Okay. Is he, the first thing I think of is a pool cue. Is that what it is? No, but that's not a bad thought.

Starting point is 00:28:12 Well, how you could kill someone. That's not horribly off, but it's not a pool cue. Is he a sportsman? Yes. All right. I got that much. Is the stick involved in the sport? Yes.

Starting point is 00:28:23 Were they competing in the sport when this happened? No. Is the other man, is the victim a sportsman? No. Okay. Wow. Okay. So the guy with the stick, is he practicing his sport?

Starting point is 00:28:36 Yes. Okay. With the stick. Yes. And accidentally. Yes. You said kills a man with a log? A man with a log.

Starting point is 00:28:44 Oh, a log like a record book. Yes. Oh, my gosh. I'm extremely impressed. I'm still totally at sea. Yeah, I know, but that's a lot further than I thought you'd get. This was so abstract. All right.

Starting point is 00:28:56 So a sportsman using a stick and competing at the time accidentally kills. I guess the guy with the log is like a record keeper of some kind. He's a person. An official of some kind. He's a person. An official of some kind. No, no. A journalist? No, no. Is the log recording something to do with the guy's performance?

Starting point is 00:29:14 Yes, but the man is not practicing an occupation at the time. The man with the log. Oh, but he, okay. Do I need to pursue that? Does he, he has the log with him? Yes. Do I, is there more there I need to pursue that? He has the log with him? Yes. Is there more there I need to dig out? No, he's like a spectator who's just taking, he's logging for his own personal records.

Starting point is 00:29:35 Okay, so what sport involves a stick other than billiards? A stick, there must be lots of them. Polo? No. It depends what you consider a stick. My mind be lots of them. Polo? No. It depends what you consider a stick. My mind's going blank now. Is this a team sport? Yes.

Starting point is 00:29:52 So there are other people with sticks. Yes. And this actually is a sport where fans do show up and make notes and record stuff in kind of a log. Okay. I don't know if you know that. I want to say hockey? No. Baseball? It is baseball. A man with a... So is the stick a baseball of a log. Okay. I don't know if you know that, but... I want to say hockey? No.

Starting point is 00:30:05 Baseball? It is baseball. A man with a... So is the stick a baseball bat? Yes. A man with a baseball bat kills a spectator with a log? Accidentally, yes. Is it a broken bat?

Starting point is 00:30:16 No. The bat, if you remember, I said the stick did not directly kill him, but what would possibly in baseball? The ball. The ball, yes. And so this is... You're never going to guess the rest of it. But Miles said, this is probably apocryphal, but the story comes from a 1902 newspaper article.

Starting point is 00:30:33 The article claimed that a man was logging a score at a baseball game when his pencil became dull. He asked his friend for a knife to sharpen it, and while the friend was handing him the knife, the batter hit a foul ball into the stands, driving the knife into the man's chest. It seems too far-fetched to be real, but your podcast always remind me that crazier things have happened. And so according to this newspaper article that Miles sent from Sporting Life, the ball struck the hand of the man being held the knife, quote, as he held the knife with the blade pointed towards his heart.

Starting point is 00:31:09 And then the man, quote, fell without a groan to the ground. And when picked up was dead, the knife sticking in his heart and his hand still clasping the handle. Oh, my gosh. Miles said, I hope this one isn't too difficult, but I couldn't help myself with the word play. I hope that's not true. So thanks so much to Miles for that unfortunately fatal puzzle. And if anyone else has a puzzle for us to try, please send it to us at podcast at futilitycloset.com. Futility Closet really relies on the support of our listeners. If you'd like to help support our celebration of the quirky and the curious,

Starting point is 00:31:44 please check out our Patreon page at patreon.com slash futilitycloset, or see the support us section of the website at futilitycloset.com. While you're at the site, you can also browse through Greg's collection of over 11,000 bite-sized distractions, check out the Futility Closet store, learn about the Futility Closet books, and see the show notes for the podcast, with links and references for the topics we've covered. If you have any questions or comments for us, you can email us at podcast at futilitycloset.com. All our music was written and performed by the incomparable Doug Ross. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.

Futility Closet - 296-The Little Giants

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