data.3news-bydate.train.rec.sport.baseball.104814 Maven / Gradle / Ivy
From: [email protected] (Jason Abner Miller)
Subject: Re: "You could look it up."
Organization: The Johns Hopkins University - HCF
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In article <[email protected]>, Mark B. writes...
>Yes, I could look it up but I prefer to post this question
>to the net...
>I read somewhere in a long forgotten article that the handsignals
>used by major league umps were originally used to help a
>deaf ball player by the name of "Dummy". Urban myth? True?
>I gots ta know.
Dummy Hoy, a late 19th-Century baseball player, was deaf. In
order for him to be able to find out whether the pitch was a ball or
strike, the umpires developed hand signals. This also helped to relieve
the stress on umpires' vocal cords, so they didn't have to shout "STRIKE!!!"
or "BALL!!!!!" 350 times a game...
Heard about this one from the only worthwhile baseball book
John Thorn has ever authored, "A Century of Baseball Lore" :-)
>
>Mark B.
>[email protected]
Jason A. Miller
"some doctor guy"
Frank Tanana: 1 win?!?!?!