great moments baseball history

In an effort to liven up the crowd on opening day 1937, Yankee great Joltin' Joe DiMaggio jumps into the stands and drags a screaming and terrified President Franklin Roosevelt onto the field. The paralyzed head of state – there to throw out the ceremonial opening pitch – bites DiMaggio's ankle so hard it draws blood. He is subsequently returned to his seat by hot dog vendors. The year: 1990. The day: May 30. The problem: a rain delay. Phillies slugger John Kruk, determined to entertain his teammates and the bored crowd, walks to the pitcher's mound and eats fistfuls of dirt for more than an hour. When no one in the stadium notices, he returns to the dugout, where he vomits mud. Fresh off his no-hitter, hefty Yankee hurler David Wells finds a half-drunk bottle of Gatorade in the clubhouse. When teammate Derek Jeter says it's not his, Wells goes to the men's room, locks himself in a stall and drinks the rest of the orange beverage. He is nervous for the rest of the day, convinced that "they" know what he did. Unaware there is a rule against it, Oakland A's first baseman Ricky Henderson is forced to pop all the helium balloons he has attached to his lawn chair and returns safely to the ground. Play resumes. Concerned about dwindling crowds following the 1994 players strike, the Saint Louis Cardinals sign Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to a one-year contract as their new short stop and clean-up hitter. Despite the fans initially embracing the foreign-born 76-year-old best known for The Gulag Archipelago, he is loudly booed following a string of 21 errors in the first four innings he plays, in which he also goes 0-2 at bat – striking out twice. He is benched for the remaining games and released from his contract at the end of the season, with the Card's manager calling him "very slow" and "a major disappointment." July 16, 1961: Following an afternoon game against the Indians, Micky Mantle emerges from the showers and snaps a wet towel against an unsuspecting Roger Maris's exposed buttocks. The tender sting goes up Maris's back and down through his legs and for a moment, his whole body feels warm, as if contained in the slap was all Mantle's raw, pent-up sexual energy and the swat was The Mick himself reaching out and touching the now blooming and engorged Maris. Their eyes meet and for that moment Maris and Mantle exalt in the feeling that what they felt was wrong – making it all the more exhilarating. With Vietnam raging overseas, the Pirates' Willie Mays decides that what America needs is a patriotic reminder to liven their spirits. At the 7th inning stretch during the first game in a double-header against the Cubs, Mays sings "The Ballad of Lieutenant Cally" in right field, then orders a firing squad to shoot the widow of early great Ty Cobb. She dies on route to the hospital. Saying he feels "really ugly and bloated" that day, the Phillies Lenny Dykstra refuses to leave his hotel room for a night game against the Braves, opting instead to eat ice cream and drink wine while watching "Fried Green Tomatoes." In response to complaints that modern baseball games had become dull, mustachioed Red Sox Third baseman Wade Boggs dusts off his xylophone and brings it with him on the field in the third inning against the Brewers. He quickly assigns a different tune to tap out following each play, through the barely audible bells can't be heard anywhere in the noisy stadium. The audience's jeers of "can't hear you" soon become a cacophony of boos and Boggs angrily throws the instrument to the on-deck circle and asks that night to be traded. June 2007: Alex Rodriguez buys a can of diet coke at a 7-11 in Westchester County, NY. Upon receiving his change – 37 cents – A-Rod counts it in front of the clerk – just to make sure he didn't get screwed. As part of yet another 70s-era gimmick, the Oakland Athletics go head-to-head with the Kansas City Royals with a team of a different color: for one game only, the A's outrageous and publicity hungry owner signs 27 house cats to play for the ball club, instead of human players. The stunt goes awry when none of the cats are able to field a single ball or even approach the batter's box. The irate manager of the A's desperately tries to reposition the frightened creatures in the proper spots, though most repeatedly try to leave the field. The game is called after the first inning lasts 11 hours. "Babe" Ruth is unable to finish his whole hot dog before taking the field against the Chicago White Sox and leaves it on the bench. When he returns after the Sox are retired, it is missing. He doesn't mention it to his teammates, but never forgets the incident. Tired of his young fans continually hounding him for autographs and nearing the end of his career, Ted Williams tells a group of two dozen school boys to line up between first and second base the afternoon before an evening game. Telling them it's the only way they are going to get him to sign a ball, the Splendid Splinter drills line drives at the eager youngsters for over an hour before cheering spectators. Bloodied, broken and sobbing, the howling children are ushered from the field shortly before game time. Williams then tells them he has no time for the promised autographs and adds that he intends to vote for Nixon in 1960. Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda complains that his lunch of spaghetti, sausage and meatballs is "way light in the sausage department."