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Baseball Trivia

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Babe Ruth named his bats “Black Betsy” and "Beautiful Bella."

Babe Ruth was one of only two people (Reggie Jackson being the other) to ever hit three home runs in a World Series game, and is the only one to do it twice (1926 and 1928).

Baseball great Yogi Berra who was a catcher for the New York Yankees from 1946–1963, was enlisted in the Navy during World War II and participated in the D-Day landing on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.

Baseball Hall of Famers Rogers Hornsby, Gabby Street, and Tris Speaker were members of the Ku Klux Klan. It was also rumored that Ty Cobb was a member of the KKK, but it was never confirmed.

Baseball is the only major sport that appears backwards in a mirror.

Baseball legend Babe Ruth led the American League in home runs 12 times.

Scientists have estimated a fly ball will travel about seven feet further for every 1,000 feet of altitude. With an approximate elevation of 1,100 feet, Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona is the second highest facility in the major baseball leagues; only Coors Field in Denver, Colorado is higher.

Baseball legend Ty Cobb amassed a huge fortune from Coca-Cola and General Motors stocks. His net worth at the time of his death was reported to be $11 million. When Cobb entered Emory Hospital in Atlanta near death, he brought with him more than $1 million in negotiable bonds and placed them on the nightstand next to a loaded pistol.

Some big league baseball clubs served breakfast to swing shift customers during World War II so that they might enjoy coffee while watching their morning baseball game.

The Chicago Tribune purchased the Chicago Cubs baseball team from the P.K. Wrigley Chewing Gum Company for $20.5 million in 1981. The sale ended the longest continuous ownership of a team that stayed in its original city, which had been 60 years.

The average major league baseball lasts 7 pitches.

The Baseball World Series began in 1903.

The Brooklyn Dodgers (who later became the Los Angeles Dodgers) did not get their name because of their sporting ability. The term "dodger" was a shortened form of "trolley dodgers," which was first used to describe Brooklynites for their ability to avoid being hit by trolley cars.

The Chicago Cubs are the oldest original franchise in professional sports, dating back to the founding of the National League by team president Walter A. Hubert in 1876. Nicknamed the "lovable losers" of the North Side, the Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908 and have not played in the fall classic since 1945.

The Cleveland Indians experimented by placing uniform numbers on the sleeves of their baseball players in 1916; seven years later, the St. Louis Cardinals also made a trial-run with such a numbering system. Both tests of uniform numbers lasted just a short period of time. The New York Yankees introduced numbers sewn on the backs of players' jerseys in 1929. This was the first time that uniform numbers were used on a full-time basis. Other teams adopted numbers starting in 1930.

The Cleveland Indians were named in honor of Louis Cockolexis, a native Maine Indian who was the first American Indian to play professional baseball. Before it became the Indians, the Cleveland team was known as the Spiders.

The concealed-lace basketball was introduced in 1927. Before the concealed lace, the ball bounced at unexpected angles when the lacing hit the floor.

Baseball manager Billy Martin was born Alfred Manual Martin.

Baseball player Lenny Dykstra was among many major league players who have been very particular about their bats. Dykstra sent back the special bats he got as the National League Championship Series began in 1993. The Louisville Slugger bats were stamped "1993 LCS" under his signature to commemorate the playoffs. Lenny said that, instead, he wanted his bats for the series to be exactly the same as the ones he used all season – with "Philadelphia Phillies" stamped under his name. The bats were replaced.

Baseball player Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres became only the 22nd player to reach the milestone 3,000 career-hit mark on August 6, 1999. Notable is that August 6 is his mother's birthday. Gwynn reached the milestone 6 years to the day after reaching the 2,000-career hit plateau.

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