Hi There !

A pitcher in the 1920's claimed a batter
hit one of his pitches, and that the
line drive ball then went through the pitcher's legs and soared
over the wall in center field for a home run.

Sounds nutty.  But on the other hand,
why would he make it up?

A 5-star answer would be 1 paragraph of commentary.

All comments greaty appreciated. 


Thanks.
ron

Hi nronronronro,

It seems that some pitchers, at least in the old days, were fond of
saying quotable things.  Note that Casey Stengel was a pitcher before
he became a successful manager, though presumably few people cared to
listen to him during his mediocre playing career.  Two more successful
and very quotable pitchers were Satchel Paige and Dizzy Dean, and both
said physically implausible things.

Satchel Paige supposedly said what you have heard, with respect to
Josh Gibson. He is also quoted as saying of another player: "One time
he (Cool Papa Bell) hit a line drive right past my ear.  I turned
around and saw the ball hit his ass sliding into second."

"1948 Cy Young" [last sentence of page]
Doubleswitch.com
http://venus.lunarpages.com/~double2/History/400Pages/alcy1948.html

"Quotations From & About Satchel Paige" [middle of page]
Baseball Almanac
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quopaig.shtml

This Dizzy Dean quote seems more plausible, if only slightly: "He
(Bill Terry) once hit a ball between my legs so hard that my
center-fielder caught it on the fly backing up against the wall."

"Quotations From & About Dizzy Dean" [fourth quote]
Baseball Almanac
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quodean.shtml

Most plausible to me, given the physics problem, is the following:
Terry Steinbach, while playing in the Cape Cod League, ripped a "line
drive that went through the pitcher's legs and landed about three feet
in front of the centerfielder."  Given that you could only hit a ball
a few feet (at most) above the ground through a pitcher's legs,
getting it just in front of the centerfielder seems a truly awesome
accomplishment, as this article suggests.

"Hall of Fame Ceremony 19 January 2002" [about two-thirds down the
page]
Cape Cod Baseball League
http://www.capecodbaseball.org/News/HOFame/Hall2001/News_HOFdinnerJan02.htm

- justaskscott


Search terms used on Google and Google Answers:

"through * legs"
"between * legs"
"under * legs"
"underneath * legs"
"home run"
homer
"line drive"
"satchel paige"
"josh gibson"
"dizzy dean"

JustAskScott---outstanding!  Thank you.
ron