Historic Baseball at the Henry Ford.

Heading on a vacation to Michigan this summer and can’t find enough thrilling touristy and basebally things to do… besides the obvious mainstream choices? How about something even more Historic than the Detroit Tigers (though not by much!)

Well, in case you are, stop by the Henry Ford Museum for a Historic Baseball game reenactment (there’s something about that Cival Ware Era, isn’t there?) with live 19th-century music, old school costumes, and real live actors? athletes? I’m not sure what we shall call them. But it sounds swell.

There’s even a tournament in August which is in its 10th anniversary. Historic Baseball clubs from all over the Midwest- great states like Ohio, and Michigan, and Ohio, and Michigan.

You should read more about it. I’ve got to go graduate from school and take finals and stuff.

This poem, a change-up follow-up to Franklin Pierce Adams’ “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” is entitled “Tinker to Evers?” by Steve Vittori. The poem was first published in 1989 in Spitball Magazine, a literary baseball magazine that features fiction, poetry, prose, art, and book reviews. In his poem, “Tinker to Evers?” Vittori has created an alternate universe, in which the famous Tinker and Evers and Chance are lousy fielders, their careers riddled with errors. Leading us to pause wonder, “Oh where would Chicago’s Bear Cubs have been?” It is indeed quite humorous.

For a ballclub to win in the National League
The infielders need to be versed
In the skills of sweeping the diamond
At shortstop and second and first.

Oh, where would Chicago’s Bear Cubs have been
In nineteen hundred and eight
If the men who patrolled up the middle
Could only produce at the plate?

If with glove not of gold and hands lined with lead
Each knocked down balls with knees or with head;
Then reached down to launch a sub-orbital throw
To the home team dugout or seventeenth row?

Then Pirates and Giants would score on these terrors
Four runs on no hits but five or six on errors,
On Merkle, on Tenney, on Bridwell; and Honus,
An infield double’s your double-hop bonus.

And how would Franklin P. Adams describe
These choreographers’ dance?
Why, just slap the ball up the middle.
Tinker to Evers? No Chance!

“Tinker to Evers?” by Steve Vittori, (c) 1989

Do you have a favorite baseball tradition? Is there a particular ghost of baseball past you would like to revisit? Ever wonder why they do what they do, and when they started doing it? If you have a suggestion, question, or submission for Throwback Thursday, contact Elise by tweeting @Elise_Myers.

 The Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past. These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. The Library of Congress does not endorse the views expressed in these collections, which may contain materials offensive to some readers.

You know you’re getting into some pretty deep controversy, right? Like we are discussing the Civil War, or eugenics, or Watergate. You might think you’re pretty close to digging up some good old Old Hickory propaganda. Or something. It’s 2013 folks, you know, the Library of Congress needs to protect themselves from civil lawsuit and other social injustices.

But does it not seem a little unnecessary that the aforementioned disclaimer is on the page for the Library of Congress’ Official Online Baseball Card Collection?

Yes. It is a thing. Thousands (2,100 to be exact) of tattered and torn and yellowed baseball cards from 1887-1914. All in one place. (Online.) Wherever I want them. (In my lap.) Whenever I want them. (Now.)

And there are some beauties:

Poppin’ collars. It’s okay to be left speechless.

Look out, ladies and gents. Dude Esterbrook is at first for the Indianapolis Hoosiers.

You can search the collection by keyword, team, player, or league… but not by moustache. I have discovered a flaw in your system, LOC.

Because someone gets paid (ahem, by whom I will not say) to scan and catalog historical baseball cards. Dream job, right? Meanwhile they are probably also scanning thousands of boo-oo-ooring other historical documents for, yawn, 14 hours a day, hunched over a steaming copy machine in a basement somewhere in Washington, D.C.

But still.

The thought of shuffling through ancient baseball treasures for taxpayers’ dollars (there I said it)* sounded pretty dreamy until you put just a tad too much thought into it, right?

It’s like all of those other jobs I’ve ever wanted… mowing the field at Yankee Stadium, planting the flowerbeds at Disneyland, or tying the scarf on Billy Boyd before filming every scene in The Lord of the Rings… I mean, someone out there is getting paid to do these things! and I want that to be me! where do I drop off my resume?!

Pippin’s scarf…. somebody has to do it.

Maybe it’s better, sometimes, to just enjoy the work of others… to let the magic happen, and not mingle with it, lest the illusion be shattered. The flowers at Disneyland will always be beautiful and bright and never dead. The grass at Yankee Stadium is always greener. A young hobbit from the Shire will come of age in fashionable warmth. And the government provides me with old timey collectable baseball treasures for my leisurely online perusal. Don’t question how they got there. Or who did it. Just let it be.

*DISCLAIMER: I have nothing against taxpayers, or their dollars. The opinions expressed within this article represent the views of the writer only and not those of Aerys Sports. Carry on.

Do you have a favorite baseball tradition? Is there a particular ghost of baseball past you would like to revisit? Ever wonder why they do what they do, and when they started doing it? If you have a suggestion, question, or submission for Throwback Thursday, contact Elise by tweeting @Elise_Myers.

“Clothing for men who redefine being a man.”

I can’t say that I disapprove… But what I can say… as an aside… is that I fondly remember that my first boyfriend wore a kilt on a few occasions when we were 13, so I’m sure there is some pretentious American psychologist out there licking his lips in anticipation about all that he could say about that.

But enough of that. Today’s Throwback Thursday post is not about kilts as much as it is about shorts. We’ve established that shorts are popular in sports, but not so much baseball. And there is a good reason for that. Sliding. The only reason you need, really.

But what about another good reason for not wearing shorts in baseball? Oh, maybe because you just look ridiculous, Chicago White Sox.

Bucky Dent, circa 1976, breaking baseball commandments for sure.

Bill Veeck’s wife Mary supposedly takes the fall for this one, but it’s not unlike the incident in the Garden of Eden. Husband was there, husband was standing by, and the serpent said to the wife: “Is that really what the baseball gods said, that you shall not wear shorts in baseball?”

And so, baseball shorts became a real thing that really actually happened.

Not once, not twice, but three times.

The first time, the White Sox suited up in their little navy blue shorts on August 8th, 1976 for a doubleheader agains the Kansas City Royals. The Sox won the first game, with bare knees and thighs poking out from the tops of their titular white stockings, but the shorts didn’t make it into the second game.

According to Bruce Markusen of The Hardball Times, the White Sox donned the shorts but twice more. Two more times too many, most would argue. On August 21st and August 22, with a win and a loss to the Orioles.

Shorts were never worn again in the Major Leagues, as you can imagine. And when I think about it, I’m not certain that any team has ever worn kilts… though I cannot believe kilts lend themselves at all to baseball, particularly when it comes to sliding. But it would be an interesting experiment. Maybe for St. Patrick’s Day next year during Spring Training…

I’ll just talk to some club owner’s wife about it.

Do you have a favorite baseball tradition? Is there a particular ghost of baseball past you would like to revisit? Ever wonder why they do what they do, and when they started doing it? If you have a suggestion, question, or submission for Throwback Thursday, contact Elise by tweeting @Elise_Myers.

• “I’m taking it one pitch at a time.”
• “It’s a long season.  Everybody goes through rough stretches.”
• “I’m just trying to stay on an even keel.  Not too high, not too low.”
• “Baseball is a game of failure – if a hitter succeeds 30 percent of the time, he’s a superstar.”

The A-Rod article didn’t say that sports psych’ didn’t work.  It did say, however, that it was hard to quantify its success. In some cases, it seemed the psychologist didn’t want to accept a player’s failure.  In others, the talent level of the player was so great that it wouldn’t take much to get the guy on the right track.  You can read it for yourself.

A second article I found was on the Babe Ruth, and his trip to the psych lab at Columbia University in 1921.  Basically, The Babe would be run through a battery of tests to see why he was so much better than his peers – and couldn’t clubs use these assessments to help in the turbulent, unpredictable of scouting? Tests run on The Babe ran from vision to muscles, from ears to his brain.  The Babe seemed to enjoy the process, and was above average in all areas.  As a result, it was hypothesized that George Herman Ruth could have been great at anything he chose to do.

The two articles were separated by roughly 85 years and pointed to the fact that the better the talent of the player, the better the results he would have — whether he utilized a sports psychologist or not.  This isn’t to bash the business of sports psychology.  The A-Rod article pointed out that without hard evidence, it’s hard to say how much psychology does to improve the players success.

Well, take a look at a few of the young players today.  Buster Posey seems to run on an even keel, works hard, is very bright and keeps the goals of team in the forefront.  Mike Trout plays with a boundless, youthful enthusiasm, and just seems to let the game come to him and his tremendous talents.  Bryce Harper is completely driven — a larger, faster, stronger Pete Rose with a better arm. He lets it rip every night, putting forth tremendous effort every game.

Then, take a look at some greats from the past.  Jackie Robinson had to face problems of racial prejudice daily, both on and off the field.  He played with his motor running constantly in a game that wasn’t sure it wanted him.  Henry Aaron had to deal with the demons of racial prejudice as he pursued the “unbreakable” home run record of Babe Ruth.   And he was doing it in Atlanta, in the heart of the South.  Somehow, he managed to excel, even under the threat of death.  Ruth, of course, the guy who is credited with saving baseball, savored the moment and wasn’t afraid to strike out.  He knew he’d get more than his fair share of home runs and RBI.

The three kids I mentioned succeed because of more than their times in the sixty and the arc of their swing.  The three Hall of Famers I mentioned made it to the top because of more than their physical talent.  All six players I mentioned either were great or have the potential to be great because of how they handle the game between their ears.  They know/knew how to remain calm and slow the game down when others see a kaleidoscope of action going on around them.  They realize/realized that no one at bat will ruin their legacy, but that they can/could be remembered for one special accomplishment.  They all know/knew that they could get the job done.

To be sure, no one gets to the top or stays at the top without help from others. Often, that help may be a little psychology, or possibly a different way of looking at things that allows them to make the most of their tools.  Psychology is, has been and always will be a huge part of sports.  We just might not be able to identify where it’s coming from, or how much psychology has to do with production.  Whether it comes from an educated sports psychologist or a grizzled old coach, there is no doubt that the games going on in the mind can and will affect the game on the field.

Once I asked a former player who played for parts of five years in the big leagues how good the talent was in the minor leagues.  His response was simple, and clear:  “There are people who never make it out of Double-A who are just as talented or more talented than guys in the bigs.  The difference is, they can play in front of 5,000, but not in front of 35,000.”

Sounds like sports psych plays a major role in making for big league success, no matter who acts as psychologist.


Wayne Tyson was a high school and community college baseball coach for 26 years including six years at Florida Air Academy. His FAA team won the Florida Class 3A State Championship in 1998 and was runner-up in 1999, when the team included freshman Prince Fielder. Wayne currently writes for Cowbell Clankers, the Aerys Sports home of the Tampa Bay Rays. Follow him on Twitter @WayneTyson11.

This is not what Zack Greinke experiences every day, but apparently it’s what Tom Garfinkel thinks he does.

We need to talk about people who continue to stigmatize mental illness.

I happen to have social anxiety disorder. I grew up with undiagnosed Asperger’s and was bullied horribly as a young girl, and as a result I now live with the constant fear of rejection and judgment from people. Combined with my horrible OCD, it’s awfully crippling and many social situations terrify me.

I got my Asperger’s diagnosis at age 20. There’s a lot of stigma attached to being on the autism spectrum, too, so much like my social anxiety disorder and OCD, I don’t talk about it too much in public except on the internet, where I blog about living with it.

So we need to bring up the CEO of the Padres, Tom Garfinkel, and what he said to Padres season ticket holders:

“He threw at him on purpose, OK?” Garfinkel told an estimated crowd of 40 or 50 at Petco Park on Friday, a day after the fight. “That’s what happened. They can say 3-and-2 count, 2-1 game, no one does that. Zack Greinke is a different kind of guy. Anyone seen ‘Rain Man’? He’s a very smart guy.”

Rain Man, as most people know, is a film about an autistic savant. Now, most people on the autism spectrum, myself included, don’t have savant skills, but the movie also opened a large number of people’s eyes to autism in general. I’m mind-boggled over this reference, though, because Zack Greinke is most definitely not on the autism spectrum. He has social anxiety disorder.

As someone who has both, I know the difference – social anxiety is defined by severe anxiety in social situations, often brought on by bad experiences in one’s youth, like my bullying. Autism is a difference in one’s brain that makes social interaction difficult. They often go together because, as in my case, children on the autism spectrum are bullied for being different and therefore develop social anxiety, which continues to plague them as adults. I for one am particularly nervous around men my age, as it was boys, not fellow girls, who made fun of me. It prevents me from testing the dating waters because I’m so afraid of negative judgment and more mental and emotional harm.

Here’s the problem with what Tom Garfinkel said: although he didn’t directly refer to Greinke as ‘Rain Man,’ he revealed an extremely poor understanding of mental health issues and autism, one that’s unfortunately quite pervasive in the public’s minds, as well. Garfinkel implied with his comment that autism and social anxiety are the same thing – which they are most definitely not – and reminded me that we still have a long way to go in this society before we overcome the stigma on mental illness in this country.

A year ago today, my colleague Stacey Gotsulias published this article on mental illness in baseball. It’s an absolute must-read. Mental health is not something we should be stigmatizing – it’s something we should be accepting and understanding more. It’s the 21st century. We don’t just take people with mental health problems and throw them into asylums anymore. We need to be learning about them and accepting them and understanding that like chronic physical injuries, mental health issues don’t leave and have to be regulated throughout one’s life.

It’s time to stop stigmatizing mental health in sports. In fact, it’s long past time to stop stigmatizing mental health everywhere. We fear what we do not understand. If people come to a better understanding of mental health issues, then society will be able to accept people – including myself and my colleague Stacey – with them. Don’t judge us automatically. Don’t assume that we need to be institutionalized. Just listen and try to understand and don’t ever, ever treat people with mental illnesses negatively.

Because you know something? They aren’t. Mental health issues are like every other chronic illness out there – something to live with that need understanding and acceptance.

Enough is enough.

Of all sports, baseball is, in my opinion, the most poetic. If you’ve watched the game, you agree. If you were raised on a desert island  and never watched the sport but through some turn of events managed to have a radio (or construct one from found objects, say coconuts or potatoes) and happened to tune into Vin Scully at Chavez Ravine, you would agree. Baseball is poetic. Through the gradual paced buildup, the long-awaited moments of euphoria, and all the slow innings that gently roll into one another, baseball has distinct rhythm and meter unlike any other sport.

Baseball is poetic in movement and in word. The concentration; the subtleties in windups, in swings, in outfield snags; even charging the mound has a colorful language of its own, one that we try to capture with words, but fail at our attempts using the common tongue. Baseball demands a set of words and phrases- a lexicon- of its own, in order for the feeling to be captured, transcribed, and understood.

On today’s Throwback Thursday, I would like to begin a tradition of sharing baseball poetry of auld lang syne, some less auld than others, of course. We will begin this week with a brief poem by Franklin Pierce Adams, published in 1910 in the New York Evening Mail. This poem is written from the viewpoint of a New York Giants fan in witness of the impressive (and utterly heart-wrenching) fielding prowess of three early 1900′s Chicago Cubs infielders: Johnny Evers, Joe Tinker, and Frank Chance.

If poetry isn’t really your thing (yet) but baseball is, read this poem through a couple times. Familiarize yourself with the story that the poem is describing. Then, I highly recommend, read the poem aloud. You’ll notice how playful the language seems, though the mood still lamenting.

These are the saddest of possible words:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double-
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

“Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” by Franklin Pierce Adams, (c) 1910.

Do you have a favorite baseball tradition? Is there a particular ghost of baseball past you would like to revisit? Ever wonder why they do what they do, and when they started doing it? If you have a suggestion, question, or submission for Throwback Thursday, contact Elise by tweeting @Elise_Myers.

Now, pretend you’re a mouse with an intellect rival to that of a human being. Like mouse-Stephen-Hawking, mouse-Einstein. Harder still, eh?

And imagine you used your incredible mousey intellect to design a supercomputer named Deep Thought, in order to ask her one question:

What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything?

And seven-and-a-half million years later, Deep Thought tells you this:

42.

42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything.

You would agree, if you were a mouse-genius, or at least, if you’ve ever stumbled across one of Douglas Adams’ delightful science fiction novels in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. That’s my excuse.

But also, you would probably find 42 to be a significant number if you have ever been inside a baseball stadium. Which is more what this Throwback Thursday article is about, as you might guess.

Because, you know, Jackie Robinson wore number 42. And, I might add, Jackie Robinson was The Man. (And I don’t mean that in the stick-it-to-the-man way.) But we talk about Jackie Robinson so often, don’t we? So why today? Because, dear reader, tomorrow, a very special movie about a very special man is coming to theaters near you. Yes, that’s right, it’s 42, the Jackie Robinson story and who cares if it’s going to be good (it is), because baseball.

We could sit here and go through the story of Jackie’s life, but that would include too many spoilers. So this weekend, while you’re struggling through that painful pre-preview “entertainment” at your local movie theater, or waiting in line outside in the near-freezing cold for the 10pm showing tonight, why not whip out some Jackie Robinson trivia to go with that fluorescent-yellow popcorn? It will be a good time (But it probably won’t help with the kernels that are stuck in your teeth).

Enjoy some Jackie Robinson trivia questions.

And, a humorous graphic from our friends at The Onion: Jackie Robinson Honored with Trivia Question.

Finally, or firstly, watch the trailer for the new movie 42 starring Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford:

Do you have a favorite baseball tradition? Is there a particular ghost of baseball past you would like to revisit? Ever wonder why they do what they do, and when they started doing it? If you have a suggestion, question, or submission for Throwback Thursday, contact Elise by tweeting @Elise_Myers.

That being said, how can we not wonder who truly will be in the hunt for the ring?

There are several things that will be necessary for a team to make it to the post-season:

1. Good starting pitching. No matter what kind of offense a club has, it’s going to need top-notch pitching. That begins with the starters. How about the Nationals, Reds, Dodgers, Giants and Phillies in the N.L. and Detroit, Tampa Bay, Oakland and Toronto in the A.L.? The Phillies will hope Roy Halladay is healthy, and Toronto will need to have new faces few comfortable on the bump and in the stadium.
2. Bullpens. Start with Atlanta, then probably Tampa Bay. The Cincinnati Reds, Giants and Orioles are surely in the mix, and Oakland and the Nationals merit mention.

Great starting pitching can make bullpens look better than they are, because they can be used with more flexibility. Solid bullpens can help starters out on the rough days. Teams that have both live in a state of luxury.

And remember, good bullpens might start with a closer, but as often as not they have the middle relievers and setup men capable of getting the ball in the closer’s hand in the ninth. Mariano Rivera wouldn’t have the rep he does if he pitched for a lower-echelon team. He might have been just as good, but we would never have heard of him.

More thoughts on what a team needs to get to October:

1. Offensively, a team needs to be creative and capable of handling the bat. Seldom does the World Series come down to a slugfest. Take a look at the San Francisco Giants. They’ve won it twice in the past three years and, for the most part, it seems they have a mix-and-match lineup. Marco Scutaro got hot when he was needed, and Angel Pagan and Pablo Sandoval took care of business in the Series. One of the biggest hits of the Series was a bunt single by pitcher Barry Zito. Somehow, the Giants always found a way to get just enough runs for their pitching staff.
2. Teams need a leader to get them through the marathon that starts in late February and ends in late October or November. Don’t underestimate what Derek Jeter means to the Yankees. Just having him on the field and in the dugout and clubhouse is worth wins, no matter what his batting average is or that he might have lost a bit of range. Every team needs a “lead buffalo” or a “bell cow.” Buster Posey has filled the leadership role for the Giants since his first full season with the team. I don’t believe in playing the game of “ifs and buts,” but it would be interesting to see what would have happened had Posey been healthy in 2011. Might the Giants have been looking at a three-peat?
3. And that brings us to team health. Last year, in the first game of the National League Divisional Series, Johnny Cueto left with back spasms. Result? San Francisco managed to squeak by the Cincinnati Reds, and eventually won the World Series. Losing your ace is a killer, but to see an ace bow out in a short series hurts even more. You don’t have time to re-group. I think a case could be made that the Tampa Bay Rays might have very easily been in the playoffs, and very possibly the Series last year had Evan Longoria been healthy. The Rays were 41-44 without him last year, and 49-28 with him.
4. Finally, there has to be someone at the helm who can, and will, push every button. That’s part of what makes the Giants click. In their two championship seasons over the last three, every move Bruce Bochy has made has worked. From a bunt here to a hit and run there all the way to his use of Tim Lincecum last season, Bochy didn’t make a mistake. Guys like Buck Showalter and Jim Leyland and Joe Maddon have what it takes to make a club better than the sum of its parts. You can certainly add Davey Johnson to that mix as well.

So, while I won’t be putting money on who will make the playoffs or win the World Series, there are a number of ingredients any team will need to be there at the end. I tend to believe in organizations, managers, team leaders and good health. And no matter who ends up on top in the end, it will have been a tough season that will have tested them. Baseball is a game of attrition, from the first day in the clubhouse in February until the champagne flows in the fall.


Wayne Tyson was a high school and community college baseball coach for 26 years including six years at Florida Air Academy. His FAA team won the Florida Class 3A State Championship in 1998 and was runner-up in 1999, when the team included freshman Prince Fielder. Wayne currently writes for Cowbell Clankers, the Aerys Sports home of the Tampa Bay Rays. Follow him on Twitter @WayneTyson11.

In or out? The Knothole Gang, photograph from the Milwaukee Sentinel, via BorchertField.com.

When I was in second grade, Derek Jeter was a much younger man, and my greatest worries were what was being offered for hot lunch in the cafeteria. We spent the class day learning how to type and write in cursive (guess which skill has proven more useful), and we ate watermelon jelly beans. Life was good.

I remember one day in class we watched a movie called The Buttercream Gang. I don’t remember anything about it actually, other than that it happened. And also that there was one scene from the movie that has been inaccurately remembered in my mind… some angsty teenage kids from the ’50s walking around in caves or cliffs or something, with little knives, sitting on the hoods of their fast cars, saying things like:

“Is that a threat?”

“No. It’s a promise.”

That became the coolest thing to be said on the playground. Ever. I didn’t know what threats were. Or much less, buttercream. And I didn’t know a lot about gangs either, except that being in one made you cool, so we decided to start throwing pinecones at all the other kids (we called them atomic bombs).

Gangs appeal to kids. I don’t mean the violent scary serious kind of gangs though. I mean the kind of gangs where you buy bubblegum cigarettes and ride your bikes around the north woods of Wisconsin, scaring deer and doing secret hand signals with your second-cousins-once-removed (for instance). The kinds of gangs that appeal to kids desired to fit in and to be cool and, if you were to degrade humanity to animals with clothes, our instinct to be a part of the pack.

“If kids wat to be in a gang, for one reason or another, like to delineate the in from the out, or simply to watch baseball games together, then why not exploit that simple human desire, the desire of belonging, as a marketing strategy?”

-Said one St. Louis Cardinals organization under Branch Rickey in 1917.

And voila, the Knothole Gang was established.

The Knothole Gang: an organization of youngsters fostered to early-onset addictions to baseball. The theory being:

“If we let these little ones come to baseball games at reduced prices now, by the time they are adults they will be completely physically and mentally dependent upon our franchise, and will pay big money for fully grown adult-sized tickets. Then, if they could be so lucky, these baseball-breathing adults might reproduce and create more munchkins to fuel enrollment in the Knothole Gang. And the money floods into our pockets, and the cycle continues. Have a cigar.”

Ok, so that isn’t a direct quote, but I like to believe that was how it happened. I also like to put my own words into block quotes because, although it is completely incorrect on so many levels, it makes what I have to say feel more important.

The Knothole Gang gets its name from the notion that younglings with no money would gather ’round the outside of the fences of baseball stadiums and watch the game through holes in the wood (a la Norman Rockwell). I can’t think of a better way of telling kids who’s in and who’s out than building a fence between them in this case. You’re either on one side of the fence or the other, in the gang or out of it, cool or destined to be a friendless loser forever.

But the Knothole Gang wasn’t for just any young sucker who sold their soul away to baseball fandom (but who could be blamed). Kids in the Knothole Gang were encouraged to attend all their academic classes, not to swear, and not to smoke! So I guess you could say, being in the Knothole Gang not only put you on the inside, but also had a kicker for parents too. Imagine the bumperstickers:

“My child is in the Knothole Gang!”

Bumper stickers were not very clever back then.

Today, Knothole Gangs still exist, providing discout ticket opportunities and an artificial sense of kinship and belonging to Minor League Baseball fans of all ages, although now they don’t care if you play hooky or smoke or swear… As commissioner Bud Selig never put it,

“We just want your money!”

 

Do you have a favorite baseball tradition? Is there a particular ghost of baseball past you would like to revisit? Ever wonder why they do what they do, and when they started doing it? If you have a suggestion, question, or submission for Throwback Thursday, contact Elise by tweeting @Elise_Myers.