As the story in the New York Daily News begins, “America’s pastime is a weird, weird game.”
The writer is so correct — so many baseball oddities, superstitions and goofball rules. For example, baseball gomers love statistics but isn’t it strange that if a batter fails two-thirds of the time, they’re still considered an excellent batter. It’s too bad this standard isn’t applied to everything else in life, am I right?
And since our fabled game is so peculiar, Ripley’s Believe it or Not has decided to dedicate an exhibit to them in its Times Square location.
At the Boston Red Sox legend’s request, his family removed a lock of his hair prior to his death and cryogenic freezing in 2002. The museum obtained the snipping from his relatives, and it now sits in the gallery safely inside a Mason jar. “Now we know that he was graying a little,” [Ripley’s marketing representative, Anna] Chun says.
Other baseball oddities collected for display at the Ripley’s New York museum are the following:
- A field of astroturf to walk upon
- The waft of buttered popcorn in the air
- The aforementioned follicles from the Splendid Splinter
- A complete game box score written on the back of two postage stamps by an inmate in Folsom Prison
- The legendary “honeymoon stocking” from Joltin’ Joe and Norma Jeane at Clifton Motel in Paso Robles, Calif.
Sure, there are other novelties worth the photo tour, like 70 pieces of lumber engraved with the names of every Hall of Fame inductee between 1936 and 2011. But when you have pantyhose and hair, who cares about all that bat stuff. Go to Cooperstown for that mess. I’m jonesin’ for the baseball oddities section please. Believe it…ah, never mind. You get it.
If you are so inclined, this All-Star lineup finds a home field at the W. 42nd St. Odditorium’s Baseball Room in Times Square. And, TTFB would love pictures. Thanks.