Baseball…it is a game of statistics, but it is also a game of errors, bloopers and crazy moments. Weird Facts about Baseball is a collection of the most ridiculous, funny, and wacky moments that have happened in the history of the game:

• In one of the craziest trades in baseball, Cy Young, one of the greatest pitchers of all time, was actually traded for a suit • The great Babe Ruth's big mistake—with two outs in the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series, he tried to steal a base against veteran pitcher Peter Alexander • The record for the most home runs in a season goes to the 1997 Seattle Mariners with 264—Ken Griffey Jr. (56), Alex Rodriguez (23), Jay Buhner (40) and Paul Sorrento (31) • In the 1970s, the average salary of a pro ball player was $25,000, and in 2008, it was in the neighborhood of $3.1 million • Ball players are a superstitious lot—Craig Biggio never washed his helmet during the season; Wade Boggs ate chicken before every game; and Vic Davalillo would pet baby chicks before each game • The 1926 New York Giants hold the record for the longest consecutive winning streak with 26 games in which they beat every National League team.

Plus a bundle more stories from the lighter side of the game.

Arpon Basu had said since the age of eight that he would one day make the National Hockey League. Any chance of that happening, came to a crashing halt when, at 15 when he realized he was completely devoid of any talent. He earned a graduate journalism degree from Concordia University and went straight to a sports-writing job with the Canadian Press. The first time he walked into the Montréal Canadiens dressing room as a giddy cub reporter, Basu nearly fell over as it dawned on him that, despite his ineptitude on the ice, he had in fact been telling the truth as a dreamy-eyed eight-year-old.Basu covers sports for the Canadian Press in Montréal and writes a weekly sports column for the Montréal Gazette. He is also editor of Montréal’s South Shore, The St-Lambert Journal.

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