The ultimate Giants clubhouses presence

[Rog]

This may be the most fantastic Giants story I've ever read.


calltothepen.com/2016/12/14/giants-former-pitchermascot-committed-asylum/?utm_campaign=FanSided+Daily&utm_source=FanSided+Daily&utm_medium=email

[Islandboagie]

I went to High School right next to Western State Hospital...not a nice place to spend your final days.

[Rog]

Thanks for reading the article, Boagie. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

[Rog]

Here is another article I came across which helps explain better how Faust managed to get a "hit" and steal two bases in his only trip to the plate.

Incidentally, I have mentioned the "Miracle Braves" of 1914 here before. Just as Faust was arguably the strangest player ever, the 1914 Braves were arguably the strangest team of all time. The Braves went just 26-40 through the 4th of July, but then they played an exhibition game against their AAA team.

After getting killed in the exhibition game by their AAA team, the Braves decided to call up some of the minor league players. They went 68-19 (.782) the rest of the way, coming from way behind to win the National League by 10 games over the Giants. To add icing to the "upside down" cake, they swept the Philadelphia Athletics in four games to win the 1914 World Series.

The A's had won three of the four previous World Series, and the 1914 win by the Braves was the only World Series win by the National League in nine seasons.

I think the only thing stranger would have been if old Charlie had joined the Braves in the middle of the 1914 season instead of the Giants in 1911. I have to wonder: Has any player who was with a team for as many games as Charlie was with the Giants ever had such a high "personal" winning percentage?

If you guys haven't read this stuff on Charlie Faust, you've missed out on probably the weirdest piece of Giants history, and likely the strangest in baseball history.

Yes, the truth CAN be stranger than fiction.

sabr.org/bioproj/person/d1ee8535

[Rog]

According to "The Giants Baseball Experience," a book I checked out of the library six weeks ago (renewing it one last time today) before I had ever heard of Charlie Faust, one other thing contributed to the weird aspect of that 1911 season. On April 14th, the Polo Grounds burned down (soon to be rebuilt, I believe in the form that lasted through the Giants' move to San Francisco), and the Giants played the rest of their home games in the Yankees' park, which I believe was called Hilltop Park or something like that and preceded Yankee Stadium.