Baseball Notebook: Papelbon's Dog Ate Wrong Baseball
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by Niteowl049
Jonathan Papelbon claims his bulldog, Boss, ate the ball that was used making the last out of the 2007 World Series. Sometimes it is better to not write an article on a slow news day to avoid writing articles about dogs eating baseballs but will go on anyway and will try to keep it brief.
It would have been much simpler if Papelbon had bought the 756th home run ball of Barry "Balco" Bonds and let Boss devour it, so Bonds wouldn't have to worry about whether there will be an asterisk on the ball or not since the ball would cease to exist except in the recesses of the stomach of Boss.
We will now have to continue to wonder if Marc Ecko actually asterisked the ball and if he is going to ever turn the ball over to the Hall of Fame. Ecko could have let the voters on the fate of the ball have an additional choice and that would be for Boss eating the baseball. It would be akin to sending it into space since it would never be seen again whether in space or in the stomach of Boss. I won't stretch this inanity into a fourth paragraph as readers have suffered enough.
Tommy Byrne Dies at 87
Tommy Byrne died at the age of 87 at home in Wake Forest, Noth Carolina. Byrne was known for his wildness and walked 179 batters in 1949. Since then, only Bob Turley, Sam Jones, and Nolan Ryan have allowed more walks in a season.
He pitched on seven World Series winning teams as a member of the New York Yankees. He led the American League in most walks three times and in hit batsmen five times. He hit four batters in first three innings against the Philadelphia Athletics in a 1950 game.
Byrne was the losing the pitcher of the seventh game of the 1955 World Series when the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Yankees 2-0 behind the pitching of Johnny Podres and the running catch of Sandy Amoros in left field.
In 1957, he made the controversial pitch that hit Nippy Jones of the Braves in Game Four of the World Series in the tenth inning. Jones showed umpire shoe polish on ball and was awarded first base by the umpire. Braves went on to win the game and eventually win the World Series.
On August 22, 1951 against the Boston Red Sox, Byrne walked sixteen batters in 12 2/3 innings in a 3-1 Red Sox win. It is highly unlikely that any major league pitcher will have walked sixteen batters and still be in a game in the thirteenth inning again.
Byrne was stingy when it came to allowing hits and in 1949 allowed only 125 hits in 196 innings. Byrne was also known for his hitting. In 601 major league at bats he hit 14 home runs and drove in 98 runs and hit .238 lifetime which for a pitcher is equivalent to hitting .300. In 1954 he hit .368 and slugged .684. In comparison, Juan Pierre has hit 12 home runs in 4778 at bats.
Byrne finished his career with a 85-69 record and walked more than he struck out in all but one season of his thirteen year career.
Byrne graduated from Wake Forest and went on to become mayor of Wake Forest, N.C. after his playing career ended.
