Quote of the day

I hope Mays hits 600 [home runs]. For 25 years, they thought only left-handers could hit the long ones. They even teach right-handed youngsters to hit left.

~Jimmie Foxx

Jimmie Foxx, c. 1936-1937 (
Charles M. Conlon / public domain)

Jack Kerouac and baseball

I’ve known for some time that Beat generation writer Jack Kerouac was a baseball fan. This YouTube video talks a little bit more about Kerouac’s fascination with the sport and the fantasy game he created to play on his own time. The host of the video is a bit cheesy, but the information is interesting.

A little additional research led me to find a picture of the Kerouac bobblehead mentioned in the video:

Jack Kerouac bobble head (ebay.com)

I wasn’t able to find anything about the bobblehead on the Baseball Hall of Fame website, so I’m guessing the bobblehead is no longer a part of the museum. However, it does look like it definitely was there for a time. The bobblehead was created as a promotion by the minor league Lowell Spinners in 2003, in acknowledgement of Kerouac’s birth in the Massachusetts town.

This day in baseball: Heathcote and Flack trade uniforms

On May 30, 1922, Cubs outfielder Cliff Heathcote and Cardinals outfielder Max Flack exchanged uniforms after being traded for one another between games of a doubleheader. Both ballplayers would both get hits for their new teams in the second game of the Cubs Park twin bill, in which Chicago won both games, 4-1 and 3-1.

Max Flack, 1918 (public domain)
Cliff Heathcote, 1918 (public domain)

Quote of the day

Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you’re wasting your life.

~Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson (Pixabay)