Sports - Bizarre Facts - page 2

Bizarre Fact #51:
Did you know...
In 1910, A baseball with a cork center was used in a World Series game for the first time. The Philadelphia Athletics (managed by Connie Mack) and the Chicago Cubs (managed by P.K. Wrigley) played for the championship.

Bizarre Fact #52:
Did you know...
In 1964 for the 10th time in his major-league baseball career, Mickey Mantle hit home runs from both the left and ride sides of the plate in the same game - setting a new baseball record.

Bizarre Fact #53:
Did you know...
In 1969 a brief battle broke out between Honduras and El Salvador. Although tensions had been rough between the two countries, the reason for the war was El Salvador's victory over Honduras in the World Cup Soccer playoffs. Gunfire was exchanged for about 30 minutes before reason could prevail.

Bizarre Fact #54:
Did you know...
In 1986 Danny Heep became the first player in a World Series to be a designated hitter (DH) with the initials "D.H."

Bizarre Fact #55:
Did you know...
In July 1934 Babe Ruth paid a fan $20 dollars for the return of the baseball he hit for his 700th career home run.

Bizarre Fact #56:
Did you know...
In the NHL in the 1960’s, the league decided that home teams would wear white, while visiting teams would wear their dark jerseys. The reasoning behind this was that it would be more difficult to keep white uniforms clean while on the road.

Bizarre Fact #57:
Did you know...
In the U.S., there are more then 10,000 golf courses.

Bizarre Fact #58:
Did you know...
Jackie Robinson was the only person to letter in four sports at UCLA. Of all of them, he supposedly liked baseball the least.

Bizarre Fact #59:
Did you know...
Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals at the 1936 Olympics.

Bizarre Fact #60:
Did you know...
Kresimir Cosic is only non-American player in NBA Hall of Fame.

Bizarre Fact #61:
Did you know...
Many Japanese golfers carry "hole-in-one" insurance, because it is traditional in Japan to share one's good luck by sending gifts to all your friends when you get an "ace." The price for what the Japanese term an "albatross" can often reach $10,000.

Bizarre Fact #62:
Did you know...
Mark McGwire's record-setting 70 home runs in the 1998 season traveled a total of 29,598 feet, enough to fly over Mount Everest.

Bizarre Fact #63:
Did you know...
Mark McGwire's record-setting 70 home runs in the 1998 season traveled a total of 29,598 feet.

Bizarre Fact #64:
Did you know...
Michael Sangster, who played in the 1960s, had tennis' fastest serve, once clocked at 154 mph.

Bizarre Fact #65:
Did you know...
Not all Golf Balls have 360 dimples. There are some as high as 420. Thereare also all different kinds of dimple patterns.

Bizarre Fact #66:
Did you know...
O.J. Simpson rushed for 2,003 yards in 1973.

Bizarre Fact #67:
Did you know...
Olympic Badminton rules say that the birdie has to have exactly fourteen feathers.

Bizarre Fact #68:
Did you know...
Pittsburgh is the only city where all major sports teams have the same colors: Black and gold.

Bizarre Fact #69:
Did you know...
Prior to 1900, prize fights lasted up to 100 rounds.

Bizarre Fact #70:
Did you know...
Pro golfer Wayne Levi was the first PGA pro to win a tournament using a colored (orange) ball. He did it in the Hawaiian Open in 1982.

Bizarre Fact #71:
Did you know...
Professional sumo wrestlers, called rikishi, must be quick on their feet and supple, but weight is vital to success as they hurl themselves at their opponents, aiming to floor them or push them outside the 15-foot fighting circle.

Bizarre Fact #72:
Did you know...
Racehorses have been known to wear out new shoes in one race.

Bizarre Fact #73:
Did you know...
Rick and Paul Reuschel of the 1975 Chicago Cubs combine to pitch a shutout, the first time brothers do this.

Bizarre Fact #74:
Did you know...
Roger Bannister was the first man to break the four-minute mile, however he did not break the four-minute mile in an actual race. On May 6, 1954, he ran 3:59.4 while being carefully paced by other runners. Bannister's quarter-mile splits were 57.5 seconds, 60.7, 62.3, and 58.9. Twenty-three days after Bannister had run the most famous mile of all time, his fellow Briton, Diane Leather, became the first woman to break five minutes with a 4:59.6 seconds, in Birmingham, England, on May 29, 1954. In the forty-plus years since the two British runners broke these significant marks, women's times have improved by a far higher percentage than men's.

Bizarre Fact #75:
Did you know...
Rudyard Kipling, living in Vermont in the 1890's invented the game of snow golf. He would paint his golf balls red so that they could be located in the snow.

Bizarre Fact #76:
Did you know...
Scientists have estimated a fly ball will travel about seven feet further for every 1,000 feet of altitude. With an approximate elevation of 1,100 feet, Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona is the second highest facility in the major baseball leagues; only Coors Field in Denver, Colorado is higher.

Bizarre Fact #77:
Did you know...
Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games.

Bizarre Fact #78:
Did you know...
Six bulls are killed in a formal bullfight.

Bizarre Fact #79:
Did you know...
Superfly Jimmy Snuka was the first E.C.W. World Champ.

Bizarre Fact #80:
Did you know...
Table tennis was originally played with balls made from champagne corks and paddles made from cigar-box lids. It was created in the 1880s by James Gibb, a British engineer who wanted an invigorating game he could play indoors when it was raining. Named "Gossima," the game was first marketed with celluloid balls, which replaced Gibb's corks. After the equipment manufacturer renamed the game "Ping-Pong" in 1901, it became a hot seller.

Bizarre Fact #81:
Did you know...
Ten events make up the decathlon.

Bizarre Fact #82:
Did you know...
The 1900 Olympics were held in Paris, France.

Bizarre Fact #83:
Did you know...
The 1990 New York Yankee pitching staff set an all-time record with the fewest complete games, three.

Bizarre Fact #84:
Did you know...
The average rikishi tips the scales at about 280 pounds, but in 1988 the heaviest sumo westler ever recorded weighed in at a thundering 560 pounds.

Bizarre Fact #85:
Did you know...
The Chinese Nationalist Golf Association claims the game is of Chinese origin (ch'ui wan - the ball hitting game) in the third or 2nd century BC. There were official ordinances prohibiting a ball game with clubs in Belgium and Holland from 1360.

Bizarre Fact #86:
Did you know...
The city of Denver was chosen to host and then refused the 1976 Winter Olympics.

Bizarre Fact #87:
Did you know...
The five Olympic rings represent the continents.

Bizarre Fact #88:
Did you know...
The home team must provide the referee with 36 footballs for each National Football League game.

Bizarre Fact #89:
Did you know...
The Iditarod dog sled race - from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska - commemorates an emergency operation in 1925 to get medical supplies to Nome following a diphtheria epidemic.

Bizarre Fact #90:
Did you know...
The Indianapolis 500 is run on Memorial Day.

Bizarre Fact #91:
Did you know...
The Miami Dolphins were the last NFL team to go through a season unbeaten.

Bizarre Fact #92:
Did you know...
The National Hockey League has a rule that permits their players from taking aspirin. Strangely, there is no rule that says they can't drink or use illegal drugs.

Bizarre Fact #93:
Did you know...
The oldest player to score his age is C. Arthur Thompson (1869-1975) of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, who scored 103 on the Uplands course of 6,215 yd, age 103 in 1973.

Bizarre Fact #94:
Did you know...
The silhouette on the Major League Baseball logo is Harmon Killebrew.

Bizarre Fact #95:
Did you know...
The theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters is "Sweet Georgia Brown."

Bizarre Fact #96:
Did you know...
The Tom Thumb golf course was the first miniature golf course in the United States. It was built it 1929 in Chattanooga, Tennessee by John Garnet Carter.

Bizarre Fact #97:
Did you know...
The United States Golf Association (USGA) was founded in 1894 as the governing body of golf in the United States.

Bizarre Fact #98:
Did you know...
The youngest American female to score an ace was Shirley Kunde in August 1943 at age 13.

Bizarre Fact #99:
Did you know...
The youngest golfer recorded to have shot a hole-in-one is Coby Orr (5 years) of Littleton, CO on the 103 yd fifth at the Riverside Golf Course, San Antonio, TX in 1975.

Bizarre Fact #100:
Did you know...
Three consective strikes in bowling is called a turkey.