Joe Sprinz
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Joseph Conrad "Mule" Sprinz (August 3, 1902 – January 11, 1994) was an American professional baseball player[1] who attempted to beat the world record for catching a baseball dropped from a great height.
Baseball career
Joseph Sprinz was a major league catcher who played for the Cleveland Indians from 1930 to 1931 and the St. Louis Cardinals in 1933.[2]
Sprinz spent 23 seasons in minor league baseball from 1924-1946, registering 7,364 plate appearances for 13 different teams, batting .270 and hitting 26 home runs. He spent the last nine of those seasons with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League.[3]
Attempt at world record
As a member of the San Francisco Seals, Sprinz attempted to beat the world record for catching a baseball dropped from a great height. On May 10, 1939, Sprinz was one of three players who caught balls dropped Script error: No such module "convert". by Seals manager Lefty O'Doul from a tower at the Golden Gate International Exposition. O'Doul forbade the practice after the initial stunt but, that summer, Sprinz returned to the Exposition to make another attempt.
For a public stunt on his 37th birthday, August 3, 1939, Sprinz attempted to catch balls dropped from a blimp hovering approximately Script error: No such module "convert". overhead.[4] On his fifth attempt, a baseball entered his glove, slamming his glove hand into his face with such force that he broke his upper jaw in twelve places, fractured several of his teeth, and rendered him briefly unconscious.[5][6] He eventually spent three months in the hospital, but would make a full recovery.[7]
Sprinz has rejected deserving the Guinness World Record for the feat, recalling in 1975 "Naw, I never caught that thing ... I saw that item in the Guinness book, but they got it all wrong."[8]
Baseball writer Lee Warren has speculated that, given the ubiquity of publicity stunts in Minor League Baseball, the San Francisco Seals were likely involved in arranging for Joe Sprinz to make an attempt at the world record despite the known danger. However, no firm evidence exists for this.[2][9][10]
References
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- ↑ Fundamentals of Physics ( 4 ed., Wiley, 1993 ), by David Halliday, Robert Resnick and Jearl Walker, on page 30, Chapter Two, "Motion along a Straight Line"
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External links
- Career statistics from Script error: No such module "String".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Pages with script errors
- 1902 births
- 1994 deaths
- Major League Baseball catchers
- Cleveland Indians players
- St. Louis Cardinals players
- Baseball players from Missouri
- San Francisco Seals (baseball) players
- Arkansas City Osages players
- Baltimore Orioles (International League) players
- Columbus Red Birds players
- Des Moines Demons players
- Enid Harvesters players
- Houston Buffaloes players
- Indianapolis Indians players
- Minneapolis Millers (baseball) players
- Mission Reds players
- 20th-century American sportsmen