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The Curious Case of Shizo Kanakuri’s 1912 Olympic Marathon Run
When it comes to Olympic level track and field events, history tends to only remember those who ran the fastest, jumped the farthest and pushed themselves further than their peers. Shizo Kanakuri is an...
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Why the Chicago Cubs are Named After a Baby Bear and The Long, Weird History...
It was a weak ground ball to third base that ended over a century’s worth of baseball futility. On November 3, 2016, the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years. Much like the Red Sox...
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The Longest Odds Paid and Biggest Upsets in Major Sports Betting
Tristan N. asks: What are the longest odds on a sporting event that ended up having to be paid out? Given the nature of sports gambling and so little publicly available documented evidence in the field...
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The Curious Case of Octopus Wrestling
Joel B. asks: Do people really wrestle octopus? Arising out of the peace and prosperity of the post-war world, in the middle of the 20th century Americans threw themselves into a variety of weird fads,...
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The Dome Dodgers
The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Nobody likes to move—it’s a hassle to pack up all your stuff and head for someplace new and unfamiliar. But sports teams do it all the...
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Under the Lights: The First Baseball Game Played at Night
On a field about fifty miles from Boston, Strawberry Hill, on the evening of September 3, 1880, history was made. It is unlikely the department store employees who were tossing around a ball knew that...
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Why Do Baseball Managers Wear the Team’s Uniform Instead of a Suit Like In...
Denny G. asks: Why do baseball managers wear the team’s uniform instead of a suit or something like that like you see in other sports? It especially seems weird because managers in baseball seem to...
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How March Got So Mad: The Story Behind the NCAA Basketball Tournament
Every spring, a sort of illness strikes millions of Americans. Symptoms include screaming uncontrollably in celebration, panic sweating, obsessing over hastily filled-out brackets, sitting motionless...
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Who Really Invented Baseball?
General Abner Doubleday and His Wife The myth that baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday has been widely spread since 1907 and even today is sometimes stated by such people as former Major League...
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What’s the Deal with Chess Boxing?
Pitched as the “ultimate sport”, chess boxing is – depending on who you ask – either a seamless blend of the cerebral and the physical or a joke that got kinda out of hand… Formally invented in the...
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That Time Muhammad Ali Nearly Had His Leg Kicked Off by a Pro Wrestler in One...
Muhammad Ali is undeniably one of the finest pugilists to have ever put fist to face. While that is news to approximately no one reading this, a less discussed aspect of Ali’s career is his brief...
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Was there Really a War Started by Football?
Football is undoubtedly the most beloved sport around the world. And for American viewers – who associate football with big shoulder pads and helmets – we mean soccer, where the ball is… a ball and the...
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The Con Artist Who Managed a 13 Year Career as a Professional Football Player...
The game of soccer (henceforth referred to as football to satisfy my English sensibilities, though to be fair, it was the English who originally named the sport Soccer in its earliest days under...
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The Astonishing Life of The Black Terror
In modern boxing, unless your name happens to be Rocky Balboa, it is generally advised that you not try to block punches with your face and chin. Back in the early days of the sport in the 18th and...
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