Famous Baseball Quotes: Setting the Record Straight!
Everyone knows -- or believe they know -- what the broken-hearted young whelp shouted at Shoeless Joe Jackson outside that courthouse: "Say it ain't so, Joe!"
The actual line: "Put some shoes on, Joe!"
Believe It or Don't!
Then there was the old Braves rhyme that went "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain." This was supposedly condensed from a poem by Boston sports writer Gerald Hern. In fact, there was nothing in Hern's poem about rain. Also, the poem didn't even rhyme. Sample line: "Spahn and Sain and then pray that Red Barrett doesn't take another crap on the mound."
Believe It or Don't!
Baseball scribes are known to embellish quotes. Understandable, since most ballplayers aren't all that original or forthcoming in interviews. But what one Cleveland writer did back in 1948 really took the cake. He asked Satchel Paige how old he was, and this is how the answer looked in print in the following day's paper: "Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." Sweet quote!
Alas, fabricated out of whole cloth. Satch's actual reply: "Forty-one."
Believe It or Don't!
8/13/2012 8:37 PM (edited)