4/13/2011 Listening Lounge

STRANGE BUT TRUE BASEBALL STORIES

Dock Ellis Pitches a No-No by Neille Ilel
Steroid use in Major League Baseball has muscled back into the headlines as the Barry Bonds' perjury trail jury begins their fourth day of deliberation. But drugs in baseball are certainly nothing new. Dock Ellis tells us about the time in 1970 he pitched a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates while on a perhaps-not-so-performance-enhancing drug.

The Potato Ball Caper from Long Haul Productions
On August 31, 1987, one of baseball's most peculiar plays took place in the minor leagues in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was a variation of the age-old hidden ball trick, except this time around it actually involved a hidden potato.

Nancy Plays for the Sox by Philip Graitcer
The organ is baseball’s loudest fan, and, like peanuts and hot dogs, hearing the national anthem played on a ballpark organ is baseball tradition... but that’s changing. This season only about half of the major league teams have real live organists. Their sound is being replaced by canned music and DJs. Nancy Faust was the Chicago White Sox organist for 41 seasons. She retired at the end of last season - but we get to sit-in with her for a few tunes before she hung up her Molly O'Morgan.