Was one Major League Baseball player responsible for two big changes to the rule book?

This past Tuesday was Election Day, and voters nationwide selected a president for this great country of ours.

I hope your candidate won.

With lines like that, I ought to be in politics, but I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy – if I had any, that is.

Whichever direction the country chooses to go, red or blue (I know those aren’t directions, but humor me), there will always be one neutral thing, that is not swayed by left or right, and that’s trivia.  A lot of which I have stockpiled, and some of which I shall dole out to you right now.

Enjoy, and I hope you remembered to vote!  If you didn’t vote, you don’t get to complain about who the rest of us elected.

Did you know …

… what the term is for a group of grasshoppers?  It’s called a cloud.  (I can understand why.  So could you if you ever see a big enough group.)

… some old medical “cures” were pretty wild?  For instance, in the 18th Century book Primitive Physick, or An Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases, a rather “out there” treatment for asthma is discussed.  According to British theologian John Wesley (1703-1791), one can treat asthma with “a fortnight on boiled carrots only.”  (It probably won’t help the asthma, but it will sure give you great vision!)

… you may suffer from ornithophobia?  If you do, you have a fear of birds.  (That one is for the birds.)

… Antarctica has icequakes?  Occurring only within the ice sheet, and not on the underlying land, these seismic events (also called cryoseisms)  have similar characteristics as earthquakes, but happen much faster when water freezes quickly.  (Cold, very cold.)

… some kinds of rice paper do not have any rice in them?  Original rice paper is a translucent edible paper made of rice flour, tapioca flour, salt and water.  But the most widely-known forms of rice paper are actually made from tree bark.  (Write on it in vegetable-based ink and you’ve got something there.)

… cocaine used to be sold over the counter?  Until the 1880s, cocaine was a legal substance that was used to treat sore throats, neuralgia, nervousness, headaches, colds, and even sleeplessness.  (Hmmmmm …)

… one player caused two rule changes in Major League Baseball?  When Eddie Stanky (1916-1999) was an active player for the Chicago Cubs, New York Giants, Boston Braves, and other teams, he would do things to distract opposing hitters such as jumping around on the field, making odd movements and bizarre gestures.  It wasn’t illegal then – but it became so in 1950, when MLB made a rule that says fielders cannot be in a batter’s line of vision and deliberately try to distract the batter.  Another of Stanky’s antics would happen if he happened to be a runner at third base.  If a fly ball was hit, Stanky would back up from the base about twenty feet, then begin running so that when the ball was caught, his foot would be on the base.  He would thus have something of a head start in running home.  Another MLB rule was passed requiring the runner to stay on the base until the fly ball was caught.  (He was something of a stanky ballplayer.  Sorry; I had to do it.)

… taking a fall does not injure an ant?  They are so small and light that no matter how far they fall, they do not suffer injuries.  They do, however, feel pain when the fall is over.  (Boy, do they ever.)

… Roman gladiators were probably rather fat?  Sure, you didn’t see that in the movie Gladiator, but it’s most likely true.  They ate a high-energy vegetarian diet, which included calcium-rich ash.  This helped create in the gladiators a layer of fat which helped protect them from otherwise-fatal sword wounds.  (Whatever works, I suppose.)

… only one candidate of a political party has been nominated and run for president six times?  Socialist Party candidate Norman Thomas (1884-1968) was nominated by his party in the elections of 1928, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944 and 1948.  His best showing was in 1932, with 884,885 votes nationwide.  (Six tries and no wins … you would think he would get the message or something.)

… biological weapons have been around a very long time?  During the Middle Ages, it was not unheard of for armies laying siege to a city to toss pots of bubonic plague in, to force the city’s surrender.  And during the reign of King Louis XIV of France (1638-1715), an Italian chemist offered him biological weapons.  The king not only refused the offer, he paid the chemist an annual salary to never reveal the weapons to anyone else.

… you may have nephophobia?  If you do, it’s nothing really to worry about.  Nephophobia is the fear of clouds.  Studies show that a traumatic weather experience in childhood can lead to developing a healthy (or maybe unhealthy, I don’t know) fear of clouds or of weather in general.  (Weather doesn’t bother me too much, except when it’s bad.)

… pigeons are art connoisseurs?  Sort of, anyway.  Research done in 1995 has shown that pigeons are able to tell the difference between works of art created by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Claude Monet (1840-1926).  (I’ll let you figure out what the pigeons do on the work they don’t like.)

… you have never had pear cider?  Sure, you might think you had some just the other day, but you didn’t.  Actual cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented apples, and only from apples.  One can make an alcoholic drink from pears, but it’s called perry, not cider.  (I don’t drink, so I’ve never had either one.)

Now … you know!