Stay tuned for the five worst trades in baseball history, but first…

In Indy Indulgence, Kevin Lager whispers sweet nothings in to the ears of Independent Baseball Fans.  Sure, some people can get all the baseball they need from the rigid structure of “Bud” Selig’s heavily commercialized and painstakingly sanitised Major Leagues, but the most sinister of us also crave Indy Ball, where trades are weird, hecklers are louder than the PAs, the players exist in real life, and dammit – it just feels like home.

For the 2009 Golden League Champion Calgary Vipers, SS Nelson Castro batted a record .410 while leading the league in hits, triples, stolen bases, and slugging percentage. For good measure, he was second in the league in RsBI and runs.

Also, my friend Sarah wants to marry him.

Well, Sarah, I’ve got some bad news. According to the Yuma Sun, the reigning GBL MVP is off to the rival Yuma Scorpions for, get this, future considerations.

1. This reminds me of when Ted Williams batted .406 for the Red Sox in 1941, and was then traded to the Philadelphia Athletics for future considerations.
2. This hearkens back to 1934 when Lou Gehrig won the triple crown and then was shipped off to the St. Louis Browns for two front-row tickets to see the premier of The Gay Divorcee, plus a tub of popcorn (no butter).

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This is day 26 of the “7th Inning Stache”s 100 days of MLB mustaches. All of the Staches will be cataloged in our MLB Mustache Hall Of Fame. If you have any tips on some fielding first basemen follicle follies please email us the tip @ NESWblogs-at-gmail.com.

Reggie Jackson at the plate
Seein’ nothin’ but the curve,
Swing too early or too late
Got to eat what Catfish serve.

- Bob Dylan & Jacques Levy, “Catfish”, 1975

Kansas City/Oakland Athletics owner “Charlie O” Finley gave James Augustus Hunter the nickname “Catfish” in one of his efforts to make his team more colourful. In another effort, Finley also offered up a cool $300 bonus for any player heroic enough to grow a mustache - and the lovable Catfish was one of the first to sport and support a soup-strainer.

Catfish went from a $300 mustache bonus earner to Major League Baseball’s first multi-millionaire, collecting a Cy Young, five World Series Rings, five straight 20-win seasons, and a ticket to Cooperstown along the journey.  In 1968, Catfish threw the first Perfect Game in the American League since 1922; and it wouldn’t be out of line to suggest that he went fishing at 4 AM that morning, like he did a lot of mornings.

Each day we describe the stache in one word.

Catfish Hunter’s stache = Eutrophic