Cal Ripken destroyed sportswriter's laptop

[snopes]

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/a...ent_id=1776183

Perhaps nobody knows the power of Ripken's enduring legacy better than [Ken] Rosenthal, the subject of an apocryphal story designed to scare sportswriters and their interns. Legend has it that after Rosenthal wrote an article Ripken didn't like, the shortstop intentionally launched a foul ball into the press box that destroyed his laptop.

Tour guides in Camden Yards still tell the tale to this day, and Rosenthal can confirm at least part of it.

"The story is true, but in the times I've heard it, it's been embellished. The tour guides make it sound like he was aiming for my laptop -- sorry, not even Cal is that good!" he said. "I had indeed written something that he didn't like shortly before that. I can't remember exactly what it was -- something about how the streak needed to end, most likely. I wrote columns about that a few times after he broke the record.

"I was sitting where the Sun guys still sit now, and I had my head down when he hit the foul ball. The laptop, if I recall correctly, bounced off the wall of the second row, then hit the ground. I borrowed [a peer's] laptop and made deadline, leading with the smashed laptop. I remember writing jokingly, 'I was just between typing the words 'sit' and 'down.'"

[Johnny Slick]

There's a scene in The Natural (the book, not the movie) where Roy Hobbs keeps fouling off baseballs trying to hit a guy in the stands he doesn't like. That being said, I vote apocryphal, given that the press box is behind the batter and even if somebody was good enough to aim the ball like that (maybe Ted Williams could do that against a really bad pitcher, I don't know) it would still be a blind behind-the-back kind of shot.

[chillas]

Originally Posted by Johnny Slick

I vote apocryphal

Given the fact that the subject of the tale says it's apocryphal, I don't know that it really needs a vote.

Well, at least now we know why Cal didn't get the unanimous vote.

Pogue

[Johnny Slick]

Originally Posted by Pogue Mahone

Well, at least now we know why Cal didn't get the unanimous vote.

Pogue

He got the apocryphal vote though! Even though it wasn't necessary!

[Chris J]

Reminds me of a story told about Luke Appling:

http://www.bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj....bid=53&pid=318

As one story goes, Appling once asked the tight-fisted business manager of the Sox for several balls to sign for friends. The business manager refused, citing the Depression and that each ball cost $2.75. Appling turned and walked out without a word. That afternoon in his first at bat he fouled off ten consecutive pitches into the stands. Turning to the club official in the owner's box, he said, "That's $27.50 and I'm just getting started."

In another variation on the story, all the foul balls are sent into or near that owner's box.