Archive for True Facts

Now Available at Wrigley: Black Slime!

Regular patrons of Wrigley Field will be glad to know that watery, intoxicating Old Style will continue to flow at the friendly confines. Also available to the discerning epicure? Black slime!

Fortunately, as you may have noticed in the Action News Video embedded abovely, we have a Television Journalist and Food Safety PhD on hand to break it down like a fraction …

Television Journalist: “They found black slime inside an ice machine. That sounds awful. Bad?”

Food Safety PhD: “Yes, it’s terrible.”

Terrible Black Slime!


Some Useful Spanish Phrases for Brandon Belt


Sí, soy familiar con la tercera base.

News from the internet today reveals that curiously utilized Giant rookie Brandon Belt will play in the Dominican League this fall (or winter or whenever it happens).

To make Belt’s transition to life in a Spanish-speaking nation more comfortable, here are some Spanish phrases from which he’ll derive no little benefit.

[To his coach] ¿Qué veterano del envejecimiento sostendré?
Which aging veteran will I back up?

[To a lady] Permita que ayude con su protector de pecho.
Allow me to assist with your chest protector.

[To clear up confusion] No soy una jirafa real.
I am not an actual giraffe.

[To a lady] Permita que demuestre la posición lista.
Allow me to demonstrate the ready position.

[To a lady] No, gracias. No cuido para tocar con la punta del pie la goma.
No, thank you. I don’t care to toe the rubber.


Craig Lefferts Is a Subject of Conversation

Last week, I wrote a series of fairly meaningless words about a largely forgotten group of men who, at one point or another in their lives, had baseball cards made of them. In my original draft, one of these players was Chris Brown, former all-star third baseman of the San Francisco Giants. He’d led the league in being hit by pitches in 1986, and I thought, hey, free Chris Brown joke, sort of. Once I discovered that Brown the Athlete had actually passed away several years ago in an unfortunate incident, I scrapped the joke and replaced him at the last minute with the least record-setting name I could think of, one who happened to be involved in a trade for the very same Chris Brown. That name was Craig Lindsay Lefferts.

It seemed a safe choice: he played the most obscure position in baseball, left-handed reliever, and he wielded (past tense, sadly) a healthy if ubiquitous eighties mustache. He also spent most of his career playing for the Padres and Giants, two west-coast teams with occasional success and similar orange logos. To be perfectly honest, if you’d asked me two weeks ago who Craig Lefferts was, I would have told you he was Tom Niedenfuer.

But as I learned, Craig Lefferts is not the Platonic form of the left-handed reliever I assumed he was. Craig Lefferts is instead the Platonic form of all Craig Leffertses: the perfect example of what it is to be a Craig Lefferts, and the one by which all others are reflected as mere shadows. To generalize him is an injustice; he, like each of us, is so much more.

Given these things, I’d like to share a few Entirely True Facts about the aforementioned:

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This Is a Post about Marijuana

For those of us who prefer altered states of consciousness, in which awesome things are even more awesome and awful things are not half-bad at the moment, to soulless arbitraging, today is a good day

It’s the best rivalry in media softball: the notorious potsmokers vs. the financial power brokers. High Times swept the season series with Wall St. Journal Thursday, eking out victory in the 11th inning and making themselves favorites in the upcoming NYMSL playoffs.

The resin at the bottom of the bowl — now that’s my kind of derivative! Amiright?!

Jung Bong!


Wikipedia: The Secret History Of Todd Hollandsworth

It is a widely accepted fact that Wikipedia is the pulse of all that is humanity. It provides a compendium of both the key elements of our history, as well as an archive of fun facts. However, many Wikipedia users are unaware of the secret underbelly of Wikipedia, the sacred texts of the history section.

Next time you are looking up the history of the crepe or the works of an American Poet, consider taking a gander at the history tab.

Inside the history section, one finds a deluge of deliberately confusing nerd code, but if you randomly click around for a little while, you may end up with dandy’s like this one from an old Todd Hollandsworth entry:
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True Facts: Five Freak Injuries


Scott Spiezio’s soul patch asks the big questions.

While NotGraphs readers are assuredly still chuckling audibly from yesterday’s post concerning Angeleno pitcher Rubby de la Rosa and his alarming condition, it’s actually the case that de la Rosa’s isn’t necessarily the strangest of the strange injuries.

Below are five totally real and so-not-fictional injuries to’ve happened to players of late.

Regard:

Player: Jim Edmonds
Injury: Ingrown Cleat
Comment: I recognize it doesn’t sound painful, but, like a paper cut or Intro to Anthropology, hurts way more than you’d expect.

Player: Johnny Cueto
Injury: Rejected Hoodie
Comment: This is less of a physical, and more of an emotional, injury. But that doesn’t make it any less real, okay.

Player: Scott Spiezio
Injury: Existential Angst Patch
Comment: This is that thing of when your soul patch enters a prolonged spiritual crisis.

Player: Craig Counsell
Injury: Dangerous Liaisons
Comment: Counsell and his rival, the Vicomte de Valmont, use sex as a weapon of humiliation and degradation, all the while enjoying their cruel games. Their targets are the virtuous (and married) Madame de Tourvel and Cécile de Volanges, a young girl who has fallen in love with her music tutor, the Chevalier Danceny. In order to gain their trust, Merteuil and Valmont pretend to help the secret lovers so they can use them later in their own treacherous schemes.

Player: Todd Coffey
Injury: Hysterical Pregnancy
Comment: There’s a fine line between a little overweight and being “with child,” turns out. Luckily for Coffey, this was just the former.

Top Gun-style bro hug to Craig Glaser, Adam M. Mirchin, and other Internet Friends for soul patch-related wisdom.


True Facts: Five Uncollected Yogi-isms


Yogi Berra is looking at, or near, your soul.

In our most recent and third-ever NotGraphs Chat, reader and commenter TheGrandSlamwich asked which, among Yogi Berra’s various and sundry bon mots, was our (Dayn’s and my) favorite. This, like picking one’s favorite child, is simple. For me, it’s this, regarding a restaurant: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.” For Dayn, I forget. His opinions, being not mine, are of secondary importance to my life experience.

In a suspiciously timed — but no less authentic — turn of events, our Investigative Reporting Investigation Team has just today discovered five previously unpublished Yogiisms. As to whether they’re Authentic Berra — who himself quothed “I really didn’t say everything I said” — it’s hard to say. Either way, you’re sure to amuse your friends and numerous lovers with what follows.

Regard:

On His Health
I’m fine: the doctor looked in my head and didn’t find anything.

On Being Second-Guessed
No one can second-guess me. I guessed more times than that already.

On Golf
I played 18 holes, I just didn’t use’em all.

On Half-Way Crooks, Existence Of
There ain’t no such things as half-way crooks.*

On Growing Up Poor
I never lived on the street, but I could see it from my window.

*There’s reason to believe that Mobb Deep took this from Berra.


Superior Names of Baseball History

Eddie “The Brat/Muggsy” Stanky

Eddie Stanky is among the many illustrious players to have two nicknames: The Brat and Muggsy. You, dear acned reader, do not need me to explain the obvious superiority of the Muggsy nickname (for the clean face’d aristocrats who have mis-browsed here: Eddie “Muggsy” Stanky — all “ee” endings!).
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A Hat So Bad It’s Good


Yes, yes, I believe that’s mesh.

Anyone that is a fan of trashy cinema is familiar with the concept. Sometimes, something is so bad that it turns around and is good again. Call it the Last Action Hero law. The Snakes on a Plane law if you’re not into the Gubernator these days.

It looks like the rule applies to some baseball uniform choices as well.

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Picture: Great Moments in Gargantuan Bats

For those who do not know, Babe Ruth was the white Josh Gibson. It is also a widely known true fact that Gibson hit a homer in Pittsburgh, only to have it caught for an out the following day in Washington.

Observe: Gibson not only hit somewhere around 800 homers in his time in the Negro Leagues, but he also did so whilst swinging an estimably 700-pound bat. We can only imagine the two suitcases contain Gibson’s two, 10-feet-wide batting gloves, which could double for tents in a pinch.

For those who like baseball, underdogs, and legends, may I direct your attention to the Negro Leagues, where greats like Gibson, Satchel Paige, and Buck Leonard built both statistics and folklore like castles.