I was doing some online reading about baseball statistics the other day and happened upon an awesome story of a stunt pulled by some opportunistic telegraph operator in 1912.
The Telegraph operator was Lou Proctor, and what good old Lou did was insert himself into the box score of a Browns-Red Sox game. He put himself down as a pinch hitter who walked in his only at-bat in the game.
What is so cool about Proctor’s stunt is that it wasn’t uncovered until 1987, so for 75 years Proctor remained listed as having had that one at-bat as a major leaguer.
I wonder what Proctor thought of his long-running stunt. Did he tell tall tales of baseball heroism and pull out the box score from that day as proof? Or did he share the sheer brilliance of a well-done hoax with his family and friends?