Colorful Baseball History - The Attempt to Kidnap Kaiser Wilhelm

Started by ArizonaTank, June 02, 2019, 06:44:00 PM

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ArizonaTank

One of the most colorful Baseball executives in the 1940s was Larry MacPhail.  He ran the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1938 until he joined the Army in '42. He came back after the War, and then ran the New York Yankees.  He was a hard drinking 'half-mad genius' who invented night baseball, televised games and flew his teams around on airlines in the age when rail was king.

But you know that they say truth is sometimes stranger than fiction...

MacPhail is poster boy....

MacPhail was also one of the small team off-duty US soldiers who tried to kidnap Kaiser Wilhelm just after the end of WWI. They got close, and Larry MacPhail had one of the Kaiser's ash-trays to prove it.

The story according to CBS Sports:
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/just-because-that-time-larry-macphail-tried-to-kidnap-the-kaiser/

Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.