On May 17, 1857, the Knickerbocker Club of New York City invited rival clubs from around their region to a meeting. The reason: to draw up a standardized set of rules for the new sport they all played—base ball. Twenty-five clubs attended and by the end of the meeting they had become The National Association of Base Ball Players. The sport had only recently emerged from various similar, traditional games being played around the country—cricket, “rounders,” and “townball”—but by 1868 more than 100 teams were members of the National Association.
One of the Association’s original principles had been that baseball should remain a purely amateur sport. It didn’t. In 1862 Albert Reach of the Brooklyn Eckfords became the first professional player when he was paid $25 to join the Philadelphia Athletics. As the game’s popularity grew, rivalries between the different teams became so intense that paying players, though still against the rules, became commonplace. In 1869 the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first all-professional team, traveling the country challenging—and demolishing—all comers. (They won 65 straight games that year.) Other clubs followed suit and two years later the original organization rewrote its charter to become the first “major league”—The National Association of Professional Baseball Players.
THE NATIONAL LEAGUE
As attendance continued to climb and even more teams got into the act, baseball started to generate substantial revenue. And people involved with the sport started to realize that the NAPBP might be more suitably run by businessmen than by players. By 1875 many of the teams found themselves in a pickle. Why? That year, seven of the 13 teams in the league ran out of money and were unable to finish the season. The owners had to do something. In December, 1875, they held a secret meeting and formed the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs with rules specifically tailored to benefit the owners, not the players—the era of big-business baseball had begun.
More than 200 languages and dialects were spoken in the former Soviet Union.
The new League had a board of five directors who were empowered to enforce the new rules and dole out punishments for teams and players that broke them. The reserve clause, prohibiting players from going to another team for better pay, was implemented at this time, and salary caps were put in place. Other rules: both liquor and gambling, which had coexisted with baseball since its early days, were no longer allowed. The board of directors began fining teams and banning players for “conduct in the controversion of the objects of the league.”
In 1880 the board of directors ejected the entire Cincinnati Reds team for “the selling of spiritous liquors on league grounds.” Cincinnati owner Justus Thorner responded by quitting the league and forming his own: the American Association—and it was a success. By 1883 the National League was forced to deal with them, so the two leagues (along with a third, the Northwestern League) met to draw up a “National Agreement,” establishing many of the rules that are still in place today, as well as promoting cooperation between teams and leagues. The American Association wouldn’t last (it was gone by 1891; the Reds went back to the National League in 1890), but the National Agreement gave the game a foundation, and business continued to grow.
THE AMERICAN LEAGUE
The players weren’t happy with all the new changes in the game. They resented the loss of power that had come with the rise of club ownership and wanted to maintain the right to sell their talents to the highest bidder. So they tried—twice—to start up separate, player-controlled organizations: the Union Association of 1884 and the Player’s League of 1890. It didn’t work—both folded within a year for lack of finances. Baseball players had become the contracted property of commercial teams. (It wouldn’t be until free agency came into being in 1976 that players would regain some control over their fates.)
By 1900 there were 14 leagues signed on to the National Agreement, with the National League the undisputed leader in terms of prestige and revenue. In 1901 another successful group, the Western League, changed its name to The American League and declared itself the National League’s equal. The older league refused to recognize the claim, so the new league withdrew from the National Agreement. They began raiding National League teams for players, luring away top stars with higher salaries, and placing teams in National League cities. The upstarts were gaining popularity; recognition by the National League seemed inevitable.
By age 60, you will have lost about 50% of your taste buds and 40% of your sense of smell.
“THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES”
At the end of the 1903 season the owners of the National League Champion Pittsburgh Pirates and the American League leading Boston team (known variously as the Pilgrims, Puritans, or Red Sox) agreed to compete in a best of nine game inter-league, championship series. After falling behind three games to one, the Boston team came back to win the next four games...and the first “World Championship Series,” and the win sent a message to the baseball establishment: The American League was here to stay.
The following year the New York Giants won the NL pennant and refused to play the Red Sox, who had repeated their AL title. The Giants manager, John McGraw, told reporters, “Why should we play this, or any other American League team, for any post season championship? When we clinch the National League pennant, we’ll be champions of the only real Major League.”
Fans didn’t like his attitude, and the next year, when the Giants again won the NL pennant, public demand for the post-season series was so strong that they were compelled to play. But New York owner John T. Brush insisted on crafting a set of rules for post-season play and box office revenues—the same rules that are in use today. It is the “Brush Rules,” for example, that established the length of the series at seven games rather than nine.
After this second World Series, the two leagues buried the hatchet for good and drafted a new National Agreement establishing the American and National as the “Major Leagues” and all others as the “Minor Leagues.” And compared to most other professional sports, the game of baseball has changed very little since.
Turtles live in the sea, tortoises live on land, and terrapins live in fresh water.
THE SEARCH FOR THE “AFGHAN GIRL”
Here’s the story of one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century.
SNAPSHOT
In December 1984, a National Geographic photographer named Steve McCurry visited the Nasir Bagh refugee camp on the Afghan/Pakistan border while covering the war between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan. While there he snapped a photograph of a 12-year-old girl with haunting blue-green eyes. The girl had been living in the camp ever since Soviet helicopters had bombed her village five years earlier, killing both her parents.
McCurry didn’t have a translator with him that day, so he never got the girl’s name. But the photograph, which appeared on the cover of the June 1985 issue, went on to become the single most recognized photograph in National Geographic’s 115-year history and one of the most reproduced images in the world.
NO FORWARDING ADDRESS
As the image’s fame grew, so did the mystery: Who was the girl? “I don’t think a week has gone by for 15 years,” McCurry told National Geographic in 2002, “that I don’t get requests from people trying to get information about her.”
McCurry went on assignment to the region 10 more times in the years that followed, and each time he searched for the Afghan girl, but couldn’t find her. Then in January 2002, he and a team from National Geographic made one more trip to the Nasir Bagh refugee camp to try to track her down. The girl—who by then would have been a woman of about 30—apparently hadn’t lived in the camp for several years. But McCurry hoped they might find someone who knew her. The camp was scheduled to be demolished, so it was their last chance. Once Nasir Bagh was gone, there would be little hope of ever finding her.
The average Briton brews about nine pounds of tea a year. Americans: one pound.
COULD IT BE HER?
At the refugee camp the team pursued several fa
lse leads before finally meeting a man who claimed to recognize the girl in the photograph. This guy seemed authentic. He said the woman was his neighbor’s wife and even offered to go and get her.
Several days later, the man returned with the woman’s husband. In Afghanistan, women do not meet men other than family members, so McCurry was not allowed to see her. He sent a female member of the team, Carrie Regan, to photograph her face, so that it could be compared against the photos taken in 1984.
One look at the new photos was all it took. McCurry was certain that this woman, whose name was Sharbat Gula, was the same person he’d photographed 17 years earlier. But to be sure, he had photo analysts compare the irises of the girl in the 1984 photos with those of the woman in the 2002 photos. Result: They were 99.9% certain that Sharbat was the girl (an FBI analysis of her facial features came to the same conclusion). McCurry quickly negotiated with the family and not only received permission to meet Gula, but also to photograph her a second time for the April 2002 issue of National Geographic.
UPDATE
So what had happened to the “Afghan girl” in the intervening years? She had lived at Nasir Bagh until 1992 (she returned to Afghanistan during a lull in the fighting between the Soviets and Afghan rebels). She married a baker and had four daughters, one of whom died in infancy. Life for Gula had been hard and it showed in her face. Although only about 30 (she doesn’t know exactly when she was born), she looked much older. One thing hadn’t changed, though: “Her eyes are as haunting now as they were then,” says McCurry. And although Gula is the subject of one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century, it was only in 2002 that she saw the photo for the first time.
Gula has returned to her normal life. National Geographic provides medical assistance and other aid, and is seeing that her daughters receive an education. But the magazine will not reveal where she lives, ensuring that the girl with the haunting eyes will likely live out the rest of her life as she wishes—in anonymity, never to be heard from again.
Q: Why are tennis balls fuzzy? A: To slow them down.
WELCOME TO THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Scientists (and conspiracy theorists) seem to have explanations for everything...except these things.
PLACE: Blind River, Ontario
MYSTERIOUS OCCURRENCE: On June 14, 2004, someone called the local radio station to ask whether anybody knew why their clock had jumped ahead 10 minutes. That didn’t seem very interesting...until somebody else called. And then somebody else. Word quickly spread: clocks all over town were going haywire. And it kept on for days. “I thought it was just me,” reported city administrator Ken Corbiere, “until I mentioned it at work.” But, strangely, it was only specific clocks—digital clocks on stoves, microwaves, and clock radios, and electrically powered dial clocks.
EXPLANATIONS: Since it didn’t happen to battery-powered clocks, at first it was thought to be a problem with the local power company. But company spokespeople called that “highly unlikely.” A power surge, they said, would burn clocks out, not move them ahead. And besides, any power fluctuations would affect all appliances—not just clocks. Other explanations? So far, none.
PLACE: Calgary, Alberta
MYSTERIOUS OCCURRENCE: Scientists at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary recently released the findings of a study confirming what epileptic dog owners have been saying for years: dogs can tell when someone is about to have an epileptic seizure. Nine of the 60 dogs tested were able to show, by licking or whimpering, when a seizure was about to strike.
EXPLANATIONS: They have none. Some researchers believe the body may give off a distinctive smell during a seizure, but it’s just a guess. Tests continue.
PLACE: Las Vegas, Nevada
MYSTERIOUS OCCURRENCE: In February 2004, hundreds of people in Las Vegas called locksmiths, towing companies, and auto dealerships with the identical problem: the keyless entry devices for their cars didn’t work. Many people, locked out of their cars, were stranded. Some resorted to the old-fashioned way of opening doors—keys—but set off their car alarms in the process.
Sea cucumbers startle their enemies by shooting their digestive organs out their rear ends.
EXPLANATIONS: There have been many. One was solar flares—but local observatories reported low solar activity on the day of the lockouts. Another was a weather-induced static electricity buildup—but researchers said the damp, cloudy weather made that unlikely. Others said it was caused by secret technology at nearby Nellis Air Force Base. (A similar lockout happened in 2001 near a Navy base in Bremerton, Washington.) The Air Force dismissed the idea, saying any equipment they may (or may not) be working on wouldn’t affect car remotes. A more exciting explanation: space aliens, and whatever the military was doing at the fabled Area 51, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
PLACE: Canneto di Caronia, Italy
MYSTERIOUS OCCURRENCE: In January 2004, objects started spontaneously bursting into flames in homes all over this tiny town in Sicily. Fires were reported in refrigerators, microwave ovens, fuse boxes, cars, and more...with no plausible explanation. “With my own eyes I’ve seen unplugged electrical cables burst into flames, but I just can’t explain it,” a local policeman told reporters. The situation got so bad that a state of emergency was declared and the town’s residents—all 39 of them—were evacuated.
EXPLANATIONS: Local officials decided it must have something to do with the town’s power supply, so they cut off all electricity—but the fires kept happening. The town has since been overrun by scientists and paranormalists from all over the world. Some explanations given: volcanic activity from nearby Mount Etna; a surge in electrical energy from the Earth’s core; “high amplitude surges of solar wind protons”; and, of course, Satan. An exorcist was called to the town. (The fires persisted.)
“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.”
—Albert Einstein
Hey Adam! One in 20 people is born with an extra rib.
THIS IS MY OTHER CAR
Every year, BRI member Debbie Thornton sends in a list of real-life bumper stickers. Have you seen the one that says...
Where am I going, and why am I in this handbasket?
I love defenseless animals—especially in a good gravy
I’M MULTITALENTED: I CAN TALK AND ANNOY YOU AT THE SAME TIME
Do they ever shut up on your planet?
THERAPY IS EXPENSIVE; POPPING BUBBLE WRAP IS CHEAP! YOU CHOOSE.
I brake for no apparent reason
HONK IF YOU'VE NEVER SEEN AN UZI FIRED FROM A CAR WINDOW
TRY NOT TO LET YOUR MIND WANDER—IT’S TOO SMALL TO BE OUT BY ITSELF
Politicians and diapers need to be changed—often for the same reason
Whose cruel idea was it for the word LISP to have an S in it?
MY WIFE KEEPS COMPLAINING THAT I NEVER LISTEN TO HER...
OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT
Caution: I drive like you do
I’ll bet you a new car that I can stop faster than you can!
BOYCOTT SHAMPOO! DEMAND REAL POO!
It’s time to pull over and change the air in your head
Everyone has a right to be stupid. Some just abuse the privilege.
Bad Cop, No Donut
I’M NOT A COMPLETE IDIOT—SOME PARTS ARE MISSING
If you don't like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk
ON THE OTHER HAND, YOU HAVE DIFFERENT FINGERS
QUESTION REALITY
PRESERVE NATURE:
PICKLE A SQUIRREL
Four out of five voices in my head say, “Kill!”
If I throw a stick, will you leave?
Q: What is a septillion? A: 1 followed by 24 zeroes.
FOUND AND LOST
If you found a fortune in cash that didn’t belong to you, what would you do with it? From our Famous for 15 Minutes file, here’s the story of a guy who faced just such a dilemma.
THE STAR: Joey Coyle, 28, an unemployed dockwo
rker
THE HEADLINE: Nightmare on Easy Street
WHAT HAPPENED: On February 26, 1981, Coyle was driving through an industrial section of Philadelphia with some friends when he spotted an overturned plastic tub by the side of the road. Thinking it might make a good toolbox, Coyle told his friends to stop the car, got out, and examined the tub. Inside—just like in the movies—there were two canvas bags marked FEDERAL RESERVE BANK containing $1.2 million in cash.
The tub had fallen out of an armored car only minutes before, and the money—bundles of $100 bills collected from an Atlantic City casino—was completely untraceable. Had Coyle simply kept a low profile, he might have gotten away with keeping it. But he didn’t—he told everyone he knew and flashed $100 bills all over town. Six days later, the FBI nabbed him at the airport trying to catch a flight to Acapulco with $135,000 stuffed into his shoes. Charged with theft, he pled temporary insanity. That may sound like a dumb idea, but it worked—Coyle was acquitted. He didn’t get to keep the money, but he didn’t have to do any jail time.
In 1993 Coyle found fame (but no fortune) when his story became the subject of the film Money for Nothing, starring John Cusack. So was it worth it? “I wouldn’t put nobody in my situation,” Coyle told an interviewer. “Everybody’s thinking, ‘That must have been great.’ Little do they know it was nothing but agony and despair. In those six days I must have aged 20 years. You have no idea what money does to you—especially that kind of money.”
AFTERMATH: Coyle never even got to enjoy seeing himself portrayed on the silver screen. He had battled drug addiction for years and was awaiting sentencing on his sixth drug conviction when his mother died in the summer of 1993. He committed suicide that August, one month before Money for Nothing opened nationwide.
Q: What are tiercels, hens, and eyas? A: Father, mother, and baby hawks.
Uncle John’s Slightly Irregular Bathroom Reader Page 23