Baseball's Dusty Rhodes RIP

It's just one of those quirks, just like it's fun to guess how many home runs Babe Ruth lost in the Polo Grounds because he only hit it 480 or so feet to dead centre - and believe me, he hit a shitload of balls to dead centre that would have been long gone in pretty much every other MLB park of the time.

 

A well-researched take on that, despite the sensationalistic title:

 

RIP.



Oh, sorry, the other Dusty Rhodes.

 

The other Dusty Rhodes ... who thankfully for my alma mater is not yet another baseball's Dusty Rhodes.

Don't scare me like that, dammit!

 

I know, it's an awesome book, and the basis for my post on the issue.

 

I know I've seen Game 7 of the 1965 World Series on ESPN Classic before, but I can't remember if it was the entire game ...

 

FYI: Bobby Thomson not Thompson.

And RIP, Dusty. The guy had 186 PAs in 1954 - and finished 26th in the MVP voting.

 

The wall is between 16-18 feet high, depending on the spot.

http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/national/pologr.htm

That fan is only in the first couple of rows. So, figure it took about a 340 foot shot.

Ebbets Field dimensions were 348 down the line, 351 to left center and 393 to center.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebbets_Field

So yeah, Pafko would have had a chance at it.

 

The earliest complete baseball games are Games 6 and 7 of the '52 World Series at Ebbets Field.

That '67 Twins-Red Sox game is the earliest (known) complete color broadcast. Earliest color broadcast (that I'm aware of) overall is the ninth and 10th innings of Jim Maloney's no-hitter in 1965 (Reds at Cubs, WGN). That was a 10-walk, 187-pitch no-hitter by Maloney, by the way. Despite their age, both are in terrific shape.

 

Seems like I remember reading somewhere that the Polo Grounds was originally built for football, or something other than baseball, although I'm not sure who would have needed a football field of that size in New York during the era in which it was built (pre-1910). Still, the dimensions would seem to bear that out.

 

The ground that the original Polo Grounds was on (19th century) was used for polo, hence its eventual name.

In the dead ball era, balls didn't fly as far, so frequently, horse-drawn carriages were parked in the outfield. And overflow crowds could sit there as well.

 

Wait, the Polo Grounds were built for polo? Get out!