Sean and Eds Do Baseball

Eds allegedly brings the heat for the 50th episode of Sean and Eds Do Baseball as he begins to tell the story of a great and enduring baseball myth. He tells Sean of the early touring days of baseball clubs in the 1860's, and recounts the career of famed pitcher and villain Albert G. Spalding whose post-career ambitions ultimately shaped the history of the game itself.

Sean tells Eds the story of one particular game that eventually became known as The Bean Brawls. On August 12th 1984 the San Diego Padres played the Atlanta Braves in a game that would go down in baseball history; for all the wrong reasons.

Another episode with special guest and old friend - Producer/Host/Writer at Sportsnet 590 - Matt Marchese. This time Sean tells the tale of the first Puerto Rican to play Major League Baseball - Hiram Bithorn. A hugely important and groundbreaking story from baseball history that sadly ends in tragedy.

Sean gets back in the box with a story for Eds that touches base with several previous episodes of Sean and Eds Do Baseball. Cliff Carroll, close friend and fellow saloon master to Old Hoss Radbourn was a man whose antics off the field landed him in some hot water and his play on it may or may not have been responsible for the continuous debate around small ball. 

Eds returns to the mic to tell Sean a tale that rivals his account of Oyster Burns, but not because this man was an abrasive human being and not because he had a peculiar nickname. In a story plucked from relative obscurity, Eds recounts the rather pedestrian career of Clarence "Climax" Blethen; a pitcher who left Maine for a 20 year career in the minor leagues. He had a few cups of coffee in the big leagues that amounted to not much but he bit into history with a single play in 1933.

Sean goes back to back and tells Eds about one of the wildest practical jokes in the history of the game. The story revolves around Ruth Law; a trailblazing pilot who set records and risked her life advancing flying technology but most importantly - to us at least - took part in a stunt that changed baseball history.

In this episode Sean goes way back to tell Eds the story of one of the most feared power hitters of the 1890’s and by all accounts one of the biggest loudmouths to ever play the game. Tom ‘Oyster’ Burns was a pitcher, a hitter, a leader and an idiot. His reputation may have shortened his career and his actions one day in 1893 almost cost a teammate his life (or at least his leg).

Eds continues with Part 2 of his telling of the tale of a man who baseball tried but ultimately failed to ostracize, Bill Veeck. We pick up the story again as Bill realizes his defeat in St Louis and attempts to leave town with the Browns, but the baseball establishment let Veeck know their true feelings for him when they forced him to part with his team. But he knew of no other life and he would be "back beneath the arc lights" before too long in his sweet home Chicago where not even another brush with death could keep him out of the owners box. 

Eds tells Sean part 1 of 2 to the tale of the man who was one of the few people in the world of baseball who could hold a candle the eccentricity of Charles Finley. William Louis Veeck Jr. was destined for a life in baseball spending his early days working the concession stands of Wrigley Field, and then the next 6 decades in and out of the owners boxes of 4 different franchise at 5 separate times. In that time Veeck set attendance records across the league, changed the world of baseball promotion, and in the end was ostracized for it.

Sean tells Ed’s the story of All-Star closer Ugueth ‘Uggie’ Urbina. From his time as a rising prospect with the Expos to a World Series champion, Uggie was an elite pitcher. But after the highs came the lows. A story that goes off the track quickly and involves guns, kidnapping, torture and of course, baseball.