---The oldest Major League player to ever hit a home run in a regulation game was reliever Jack Quinn for the Philadelphia A’s.  He was 46 years of age plus 11 months when he belted his homer against the St. Louis Browns in 1930, his only homer that season, and one of eight he hit in a 23-year pitching career.

 

---You may be surprised to know that two big leaguers have their own stars imbedded in the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California - Johnny Berardino and Chuck Conners.  Berardino was called an “one-man infielder” during his 11 years with the St. Louis Browns, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh from 1939 through 1952.  He had been a child actor so after baseball the handsome Berardino went into television where he became Dr. Steve Hardy on the daytime soap opera General Hospital for 30 years.  Johnny was the first player to shake up the baseball establishment when he insisted on using an agent for his new contract.  

 

 

 

 

The six-foot, seven-inch Conners played pro basketball for the Boston Celtics before baseball became his passion, but could only muster one pinch-hit effort for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949, and 66 more with the Chicago Cubs.  Two years later he was sent to the Pacific Coast League in Los Angeles.  He had a bit part in a Spencer Tracy movie, and later moved into television where he become “The Rifleman”, a western that ran for five years.  Chuck was seen in movies and television including a role as a slave owner in the acclaimed mini-series “Roots” that aired in 1977.     

 

---Of all players with 1,000 or more times at bat, catcher Bill Bergen is the worst hitter in baseball history.  In 11 years with the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers, Bill hit a minuscule .170, 42 points lower than the next player.  Obviously his proficient defensive abilities kept him in the lineup.  Older brother Marty also wore the “tools of ignorance” (catching gear) during his four years with the Boston Braves, 1896 through 1899.

 

Marty’s habit of leaving the team for days at a time with little disciplinary action forced  his teammates to threaten the club owner that it had to be him (Marty) or us.  The problem was solved with Bergen murdered his wife and their two children before turning on himself.  Only one Boston player attended the funeral.               

 

---After the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers left town for sunny California, the void was filled with the expansion New York Mets.  Most players were long past their prime, and became lovable buffoons who won only 40 games while losing 120.  But they were not the worst team in baseball history to complete a full season.  Actually the1899 Cleveland Spiders have that dishonor by winning 20 games in a 154-game season, or half as many games as did the ’62 Mets.  In a twelve-team league, the Spiders finished 35 games behind eleventh place Washington, and 84 games back of first place Brooklyn.  But there was a reason. 

 

Two brothers who owned the Cleveland Spiders, Frank and Stanley Robison, were able to buy controlling interest in the St. Louis Browns that was in the same league.  Believing that the Gate to the West was the best baseball territory, they moved many of the better ballplayers from Cleveland to St. Louis.  When few fans went to see the Spiders, the Robisons locked their ballpark compelling the remaining home games to be held in other cities.  The Cleveland team, then called the Orphans or Wanderers, received a quick and merciful death after the season closed.