NOBODY out flaked this guy!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fidrych
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMSDo3BX5Ds
@Bigun I dunno, there've been some pretty good flakes in baseball history, including but not limited to . . .
Lefty Gomez
Casey Stengel---Name one manager other than him who ever tipped his cap to fans . . . letting
a bird fly out from the cap. Or rounded his players up in front of the dugout to mock the White
Sox's exploding scoreboard by having the players and himself prance around holding sparklers
after one of their mates hit one out in Chicago. Or greeted the paying customers at the old
Polo Grounds where his Mets played their first two seasons (I was there, waiting to get into
the old wreck with my grandpa), "Come an' see my amazin' Mets! I been in this game a
hundred years but I see new ways to lose I didn't know were invented yet.")
Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette---partners in crime on the 1950s Braves, whose gags included
sending limousines to bring to the ballpark enemy hitters against whom they were pitching
particularly well---Joe Garagiola was a frequent recipient.
Juan Marichal---known as an amiable practical joker in his clubhouse whose favourite gag was
handing teammates nicely carved bottles of perfume to give their wives or their girl friends . . .
who learned the hard way the bottles were loaded with stink bombs.
Mickey Mantle---very renowned as a great practical joker, including:
* The time he raffled a ham off in the Yankee clubhouse, only to tell the winner
there was no ham, but that's the hazard of a game of chance.
* The time he told rookies Joe Pepitone and Phil Linz it was time for them to hang with
the big guys and to take a cab to a Detroit hotspot and ask for Whitey Ford's table,
only to discover the place was in the city's worst slum area and had been closed
for months.
* The time he left Ford's deodorant tube full of stickum (Ford swore he used it to get
a better grip on his curve ball) in full enough view for Yogi Berra to borrow when
his own deodorant ran out . . . sending Berra screaming into the trainers' room
to get his arms shaved loose from his sides.
Jimmy Piersall---even after his successful treatements for mental illness remained a natural
flake---including the day he shuffled around the bases in reverse after hitting his 100th career
home run.
Bo Belinsky---the playboy of the baseball world from 1962-65, before he married a Playmate
of the Year.
Moe Drabowsky---made The Bird resemble a chick still in the egg, including the day he mimicked
A's manager Alvin Dark and called the A's bullpen ordering a reliever to start warming up . . .
. . . while A's starter Jim Nash had a no-hitter going! Did I mention Drabowsky once ordered
Chinese takeout---from Hong Kong, sent to the other guys' bullpen? Or, that he once ran
a string of high-powered fireworks up to the teepee of the old Braves mascot Chief Noc-A-Homa?
Or, that he---with fellow Baltimore relievers Pete Richert and Eddie Watt---put live goldfish
into the water cooler of the enemy bullpen? Or, that the three topped Whitey Ford's bullpen
restaurant (Ford liked to spread a checkered tablecloth over a table in the pen and fill it
with loaves of Italian bread and cold cuts) with wienie roasts?
Tug McGraw---once replied, when asked what he thought of Astroturf, "I don't know, I've never
smoked Astroturf." (Also predicted his 1969 Mets would go all the way after he saw Neil Armstrong
in a certain place:
When those astronauts landed on the moon, I knew anything was possible
and we had a chance.) He also disclosed what he did with his signing bonus when the Mets
first found him:
I spent half on booze and broads. The other half I wasted.Graig Nettles---fabled for his smart@$$ one liners and periodic pranks. (
Some boys want to play
baseball. Some want to join the circus. I feel lucky. When I came to the Yankees, I got to be both.)
Bill (Spaceman) Lee. Probably self explanatory.
Rick Dempsey---Orioles catcher who cooked up a routine during rain delays where he'd put on
his team jacket, fill it with water, walk out to the plate, do a perfect caricature of Babe Ruth hitting
one out and running the bases, until he dove headfirst sliding home on the tarp making the
jacket explode the water out of it.
Roger McDowell---relief pitcher once voted as the Met most likely to be committed in a poll,
whose gags included the classic hotfoot laid on first base coach Bill Robinson---timed to
explode up the back of Robinson's ankle the moment he got back to the coaching line,
on a game televised nationally against the Reds, all of whom were laughing their @$$es
off along with the Mets when Robinson got nailed.
Super Joe Charboneau---Indians Rookie of the Year who was so flaky the city fell in love
with him . . . then, the following year, a back injury basically finished him as a player.
Drinking a beer through his nose was probably one of his
lesser stunts. He was
baseball's one man version of
Animal House before his injury.
