Wednesday, April 09, 2014

39 Years Ago Today

The Houston Astrodome, "The 8th Wonder of the World", opened...which is pretty much just a good excuse to bring this up again:
Gaylord Perry popped up in the Uecker interview re: how much shit he took from his teammates after giving up a home run to Uecker ("Uecker can't pick up a ball, much less hit one out of the park"), so I Wikipedia'd him for no real reason, but saw this:
Like most pitchers, Perry was not renowned for his hitting ability, and in his sophomore season of 1963, his manager Alvin Dark is said to have joked, "They'll put a man on the moon before he hits a home run." There are other variants on the story, but either way, on July 20, 1969, just an hour after the Apollo 11 spacecraft carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon, Perry hit the first home run of his career. 
If it ain't true, I don't wanna know. Incredible.

ps - according to BaseballReference.com, it is true. Box score HERE.

No comments: