Historically Speaking: 5-1-09

With April behind us, it's important to keep chugging through the days of spring, and what better to kick off a new month than with a picture of those sexy old Pirates uniforms. I'd've included a full-body shot, but it's still a little early for that. Help yourself to a bowl full of learnin' oats. There's milk and sugar on the other side of the link.

* Today in 1924, Chicago White Sock Bill Barrett stole home twice -- once in the first and once in the ninth -- helping the Stockings to a 13-7 road win over Cleveland.

* It was 1959 when Floyd Patterson knocked out Brian London in the 11th round in an Indianapolis heavyweight bouth.

* Ten years later, a guy by the name of Leonard Tose purchased the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles for $16,155,000.

* Couple of Pennsylvania baseball ejections: In 1968, umpire Ed Vargo tossed Phillies pitcher John Boozer during a warm-up session at Shea Stadium. His offense was throwing spitballs, making him just the second player in history to get the hook for the crime. In 1980, Pittsburgh Pirate "Mad Dog" Bill Madlock is tossed halfway through a 2-1 extra-innings win over Montreal. After being called out on strikes with the bases loaded, Madlock poked umpire Jerry Crawford in the face with his glove, an act that National League President Chub Feeney deemed would cost him $5000 and 15 games. Madlock appealled the suspension and continued to dress out for games for over a month until he finally began serving it on June 6 after annoyed N.L. umps threatened to toss him from every game in which he tried to play.

* Some good and some bad California baseball news from the year 1992: The L.A. Dodgers were forced to postpone three games due to Los Angeles rioting after the Rodney King verdict was announced; Oakland A Rickey Henderson swiped his 1000th bag. Afterwards, he was quoted as saying, "Rickey want y'all to know this wasn't know act of lootin'. I done stole that base outright." It's entirely possible that I fabricated that last part.

Nevertheless, your Sports Illustrated quote of the day came from the mouth of...



...a guy named Don Ott, who was somehow affiliated with a basketball team known as Athletes in Action. In January of 1983, Ott's club smoked Cecil's favorite college team by 29 points, then turned around the following night and lost to UCLA by the sam margin. Ott's supposition: "You might say they did unto us as we did unto others."