Corey Kispert alley oop to Daniel Gafford, just watch how far back Gafford has to reach to grab the ball, with one arm mind you, and then jam it, ridiculously difficult dunk.
So back to wrestling for a minute, WWE Judgment Day, 2004, JBL (Bradshaw) vs Eddie Guerrero. This was one for the books, there was nothing particularly special about the match itself, except for the fact that Eddie Guerrero took a brutal chair shot to the head from JBL, and bladed himself too deep on the forehead, he hit an artery and the cut spewed blood for the rest of the match. When you see a wrestler take a chair shot, there's nothing fake about that, they are really getting hit in the head with a steel chair, and many wrestlers have suffered concussions from it. You don't see chair shots in wrestling anymore, at least in WWE, they finally realized the damage it does to the brain and stopped the chair shots, which is a good thing. But back in 2004, the ruthless aggression era in WWE, chair shots were a normal thing. Another thing, when you see a wrestler bleeding, it's because they blade themselves, they'll carry a small razor concealed in their wristband or tights with them to the match, and when it's time to bleed they'll go down, cover up their head and secretly slice themselves on the forehead with the razor, and they'll start to bleed, and that's how wrestlers do it, and it gives the appearance that they've been busted open by a chair shot or such. So at Judgment Day 2004, Eddie Guerrero takes the chair shot to the head from JBL, he goes down and he blades himself, only he cuts himself too deep on the forehead, he hits an artery, and the cuts starts spewing blood, it spews blood for the rest of the match. By the time the match is over, the ring canvas looks like a slaughterhouse floor, that's how much blood Guerrero lost. There's an unwritten rule in wrestling that if you get injured, finish the match at all costs if you physically can, and after the cut, Guerrero continued to wrestle for another 10 minutes or so, bleeding all over the ring the entire time, and he finished that match, he literally risked bleeding out just to finish that match. After the match, Guerrero took 16 stitches to the forehead from the cut, he lost so much blood that he was unable to perform in the ring at full strength for Two weeks. One tough son of a gun was Eddie Guerrero, it was one of the gutsiest things I've ever seen in sports history, and craziest.
So, I recently watched another documentary called "Super Croc" my mind is always wondering, curious about things, and just allow me to take you back 110 Million years ago, to a time when a monster roamed our planet. In the country of Niger on the continent of Africa, you will find some of the harshest desert in the world, but 110 million years ago it used to be a tropical region with rivers, and in those rivers lurked a super crocodile, or super croc, a crocodile so massive that it feasted on the dinosaurs that shared the time period with it. The first fossils of Sarcosuchus, nicknamed "SuperCroc", were discovered by French paleontologists in the Sahara Desert in the 1940s and 1950s. While these initial finds were fragments, a more complete skull was found in 1964. However, it wasn't until 1997 and 2000 that American paleontologist Paul Sereno and his team discovered several more specimens, including one with a nearly complete skeleton, significantly expanding our knowledge of this giant prehistoric crocodile. In the documentary, it shows Paul Sereno with one of the skulls that he found protruding from the sand, Sereno lays down next to the skull and the skull was over 5'0" long, Sereno could actually almost fit in it's mouth, and that was just the skull, the length of the entire fossil was about 40 feet long, these crocodiles were 40 feet freakin' long. Folks, that's one massive crocodile, it's pretty much what you would expect a crocodile from the dinosaur era to look like. This crocodile used to roam the rivers of Niger, and wait for dinosaurs to approach the river, looking for a sip of water or to cool down. Once the dinosaur approached the river and got close enough, super croc would pounce out of the water and bite down on the dinosaur with it's massive jaws, studies suggest it had a bite force comparable to or even exceeding that of T. Rex, estimated at around 18,000 pounds. The damn thing had over 100 teeth in it's mouth, these teeth resembled railroad spikes and were cone-shaped and designed for gripping and tearing flesh. It also had armored plates along its back, neck, and tail. These bony plates, called osteoderms or scutes, served as armor and may have also helped support its massive weight, Super Croc weighed anywhere from 8 to to 10 tons. This stuff is just absolutely fascinating, it's hard to wrap your mind around such a beast roaming around. So of course the paleontologists had to put the fossils together and rebuild this thing, and of course they had to get an expert to recreate a model of it.
Let's see what this thing looked like when it was roaming the Earth 110 million years ago. This is the model that was recreated, and this is Paleontologist Paul Sereno standing next to his beast.
By the way, if you haven't seen the movie "Lake Placid", I highly recommend it, the entertainment is off the charts. It's about a 30 foot long man-eating Crocodile that terrorizes a lake in Maine, and a dysfunctional group of police officers, a mythology professor, and scientists attempt to capture it, great stuff.
By far, the greatest shootout scene in a movie is the famous shootout scene in the 1995 film "Heat", starring Robert De Niro who plays bank robber Neil McCauley, and Al Pacino who plays detective Vincent Hanna, and of course Val Kilmer. The film is simply a cinematic masterpiece, from start to finish, you have two of the greatest actors that ever lived squaring off against each other in a deadly serious cat-and-mouse game. The Director Michael Mann pays extraordinary attention to detail, and the sound of the gunfire in the shootout scene is loud and very detailed as it echoes throughout the streets of downtown LA, it has a very sinister and terrifyingly real sound to it, Michael Mann purposely wanted it to sound that way, and it was the first time in movie history that you hear that kind of sound in a cinematic shootout, it was a groundbreaker in that regard. Another interesting note, the U.S. Marine Corps has used the shootout scene from the movie Heat in their training, specifically to demonstrate effective movement and tactics during a firefight, including how to properly reload under fire. The scene has been shown to recruits at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) San Diego and the School of Infantry, among other locations. It's just a masterpiece of a film and the shootout scene is the icing on the cake. Here is the scene in it's entirety.
One last thing about the movie Heat, both the film and the shootout are based on a true story, the story of the real life Neil McCauley and the detective that pursued him Chuck Adamson. Just like in the film, Adamson grew to admire McCauley's cleverness as a heist man, and the real life McCauley and Adamson had a chat in a coffee shop just like in the movie, and Adamson pursued McCauley to the bitter end when McCauley was killed in a shootout by Adamson after a heist gone bad, this all took place in Chicago in 1964. The Director of Heat, Michael Mann, got the idea for the movie when he learned about the story of the real life Neil McCauley and Chuck Adamson, Mann actually consulted with Adamson on the movie. It's a fascinating story, and if you're a fan of the film you should look it up sometime.
I just want to mention something real quick, the shootout in the movie Heat is eerily similar to what happened in real life in 1997 in Hollywood California, when Two men, Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. and Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, attempted to rob the Bank of America branch located at 6600 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood and it went bad. That shootout lasted 44 minutes and is by far the most intense and brutal real life shootout with law enforcement that you'll ever see, the Two men were prepared for a shootout with police that day, they wanted a shootout, and they perfectly ready and willing to go out in a blaze of glory, and did. They were wearing specially designed body armor that police service hand guns couldn't pierce, they were wearing the armor from head to toe, they were trying to make themselves completely bulletproof. The cops kept shooting them with their service guns and the bullets would bounce off because of the body armor, it's why the robbers were able to last 44 minutes. On top of that, the robbers were using specially modified weapons that could release 10 bullets a second and the bullets from those weapons were hollow point, meaning they could pierce police vests. With the body armor, the weapons, and the ammo, it's like the cops were shooting it out with Two real life armored Terminators that were armed to the teeth with hollow point ammo, Two guys versus almost 400 cops, and the cops went through pure hell for 44 minutes before they were finally able to take them both out. The whole thing was broadcasted on TV as it happened and it was shocking to say the least. The incident famously became known as the North Hollywood shootout. If you've never heard about it, you should check out this documentary.
Interesting fact about Jack Lambert, he was given the nickname "Dracula in Cleats" because his missing teeth gave him the appearance of Dracula. It's one of the greatest nicknames because it fits him, not because of the missing teeth but because much like Dracula, Lambert was like something out of a horror movie, he was just a menacing presence, and much like Dracula, Lambert was out for blood. Love this image of him, he just looks so damn menacing.
So, back to wrestling for a minute, and back to Mick Foley. I just want to say it makes me sick what The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) did to Mick Foley at the 1999 WWE Royal Rumble, it was totally reckless and it could have cost Mick Foley his life. At the 1999 WWE Royal Rumble, Mankind (Mick Foley) and The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) had an "I Quit" match, it's a match where you have to make your opponent say "I Quit", the referee has a microphone and throughout the match he constantly holds the microphone to the wrestlers faces and asks them if they want to quit. Anyway, there's a spot in the match at the end where The Rock handcuffs Mick Foley's hands behind his back, leaving him helpless, and The Rock is supposed to hit Mick Foley with 5 chair shots to the head, forcing him to quit, and Mick Foley and The Rock talked about it before the match and agreed that 5 was the number, 5 chair shots. Well, I guess it was the heat of the moment, the roar of the crowd, the adrenaline rush from it all, who really knows and there is no excuse for it, but The Rock hits Mick Foley with the 5 chair shots, and then he keeps going, 6,7,8,9,10,11, he hits Mick Foley 11 times total in the head with a metal folding chair. It was totally reckless by The Rock to go off script and take it overboard like that, and he almost killed Mick Foley that night. In Mick Foley's book, Foley details how The Rock was only supposed to hit him with 5 chair shots, but The Rock got out of hand and kept hitting him, and Foley also mentions that he turned his back to The Rock to tell him he'd had enough. Foley felt resentment towards The Rock for a while because of this. After the match, Mick Foley stumbled back stage, his shirt covered in blood, and his head split wide open, and he ran into the Rock and they chatted for a few moments but The Rock didn't seem to think he went too far. It is the most brutal thing I've ever witnessed in a wrestling match, and again, thank goodness chair shots aren't allowed in pro wrestling anymore. There's a documentary on YouTube called "Beyond the Mat" and it shows Mick Foley backstage with his family after the match, too graphic to post here.
One more thing about Mick Foley, he's the toughest wrestler in history by far, and one of the toughest men I've ever seen, tougher than a $2 steak is Mick Foley.
One more thing about that match, the fact that Mick Foley's hands were cuffed behind his back made the chair shots even worse because you have absolutely no way to brace for the impact, it's just boom, a straight shot to the head, you can't raise your arms to cushion the blows or anything. Mick Foley actually said that after the first chair shot he felt a shock of pain radiate throughout his entire body due to being cuffed and having to take the shots straight on. Chair shots were no joke, but having to take them cuffed made it even worse, and The Rock was really laying them in hard.
So at some point, you have to ask yourself why Mick Foley did what he did, why did he risk his life for our entertainment, why did he almost die multiple times for a wrestling match, what made him tick? The answer is really quite simple, he did it to create moments that will be remembered forever, to take the fans on an unforgettable emotional rollercoaster ride. That's really why all wrestlers do it. Rowdy Roddy Piper sums it up really well in this promo, one of the greatest promos in wrestling history by the way.
Martin "Farmer" Burns, one of the best catch-as-catch can wrestlers to ever live, and that basically means before wrestling was scripted, when it was actual real wrestling, the pioneering days of wrestling from the late 1890s to early 1900s. Many people consider Burns to be the father of American wrestling. I've heard and read all types of stories about Burns, some people call him the toughest man to ever live, some call him the most dangerous because of his knowledge of wrestling and holds, he knew everything there was to know about wrestling and he knew every hold in the book. He was said to have wrestled some 6,000 matches, real wrestling mind you, and only lost 6 matches. I don't know if that's true or not, but what I do know is that he trained and taught Frank Gotch, many people consider Gotch to be the GOAT of wrestling, so that should tell you something about Burns right there. And I also know that Burns handed Evan "Strangler" Lewis a loss, Evan Lewis was reputed to have been one of the most violent and psychotic wrestlers in the history of the sport, so any man that can beat Evan Lewis has to be a beast. One last thing about Farmer Burns, he was 5"7', 165 pounds and had a 20" neck, he purposely wanted his neck to be strong so he couldn't be choked out in wrestling matches, and Burns used to hang himself with a rope, literally hang himself with a rope to demonstrate his neck strength, there's a famous photo of him doing just that, it's one of the greatest photos in wrestling history. Here's a photo and a write-up about Farmer Burns, just look at his damn neck.
Catch Wrestling - The Ultimate Submission Fighting Art
Martin "Farmer" Burns -
The Grandmaster of American Catch Wrestling
A 20-inch neck is not too common in today's world. If you see someone with a neck of that size, he is probably a heavyweight wrestler or a football player that weighs between 250 and 300 pounds. Imagine, though, that in the late 1800's there was a 165-pound man with a neck 20 inches around. Now, he would look like he was part-bull, wouldn't he?
Well, in many ways, the man WAS part-bull. He was one of the most disciplined individuals the world has ever known. He had a work ethic that men today would shirk. Like the Shaolin monks in China, this man believed in training the mind and the body as one and his lifestyle was one of purity: no tobacco, no alcohol, no coffee, no tea and most importantly, no swearing.
His name was Martin "Farmer" Burns, the "Grandmaster of American Wrestling" ... a man that could take a six-foot hangman's drop and remain suspended in mid-air for three minutes .... while whistling the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy. Sounds too incredible to believe, but it is true. In the early 1900's "Farmer" Burns performed the hangman's stunt a half-dozen times a day; tens of thousands witnessed it.
More than any other accomplishment, the hangman's drop is what wrestling historians remember the most about "Farmer" Burns. But there was a lot more to the man than most people know. Taking the time to read about him will lift your spirits, give you strength and make you strive to make your life better than it already is.
Martin "Farmer" Burns was born February 15, 1861, in a log cabin located in Springfield Township, Cedar County, Iowa. When Martin was only eleven, his father died, leaving him behind with his mother, one brother and five sisters. In order to help support the family, Martin worked for a neighboring farmer for twelve dollars a month. He also took jobs sawing wood, plowing corn and digging graves.
Although he received little schooling, Martin made up his mind early on that he wanted to become a professional wrestler. When he was only eight years old he wrestled another boy for his first stake; fifteen cents was put up by each side. The opponent, James Magrin, was three years older than Burns, but young Martin tossed him and walked away with the prize. He also left with an even stronger desire to achieve even more.
In the book, Life Work of Farmer Burns (copyright 1911), it says, "From the age of twelve to the age of nineteen years he spent his time plowing corn in the daytime and wrestling evenings every time he secured a chance with whoever he could find to hold up the other end of the work. At the age of nineteen years he was quite well known in the neighborhood of Dennison, Iowa, as a very husky young man with a reputation as a winner in every match into which he had entered, and it was here that he met a professional wrestler for the first time in his life."
Burns' match with Graft lasted two hours and nineteen minutes and was declared a draw. Afterward Burns went to work in a grading camp, and on payday he would take on all-comers. It was in the grading camp that Burns developed many of his theories about wrestling, mostly because he had to continually whip bigger and stronger men who were in good condition.
In 1886, Burns lost his first match to Henry Clayton, who wrestled under the name of Evan "Strangler" Lewis (not to be confused with Robert Friederich, who wrestled in another era under the name of Ed "Strangler" Lewis). One year later Burns lost again, this time to Tom Connors. Burns later avenged both of these losses.
In the spring of 1889, Burns made a trip to Chicago with two carloads of hogs. Because he had a ten-day stay, Burns unloaded the hogs and went sight seeing. While wandering around the town he spotted various advertisements posted in regard to two wrestlers, Jack Carkeek and Evan "Strangler" Lewis, who were taking on all-comers. The bill read as follows:
JACK CARKEEK and EVAN LEWIS, the STRANGLER, at the OLYMPIC THEATRE. WILL MEET ALL COMERS. $25.00 to anyone staying fifteen minutes or $2.00 per minute after the first seven minutes. No limit to time and nobody barred. Parson Davis, Manager.
Burns, viewing this as his chance to break into the professional ranks of catch-as-catch-can wrestling, seized the day and went to the manager's office to say he wanted to take the $2 per minute challenge. The manager booked Burns for the following evening. But word soon got out and Carkeek met with the manager, trying to persuade him to call off the engagement. Burns was not to be turned away. He told Manager Davis that he would be in town for 10 days and any night would be just fine.
The following evening was not only Burns' chance to make it big, it was also the night he became known as the "Farmer." As wrestling was only part of the show and most of the rest was comedy, the crowd waited for J.W. Kelly, who showed up for work drunk, to make the introduction of the next contestant. Burns had to literally shake Kelly awake, and when he finally came to and saw him dressed in overalls, he rushed onto the stage.
"What would you call a man who hoes potatoes and squash and shucks corn?" Kelly asked.
"A farmer," replied the musician.
"Well, then," he continued, "if this farmer would get locked up in a house and the house would catch fire, what would happen to the farmer?"
"I do not know," the musician replied.
"Farmer Burns," replied Kelly. He then ran off the stage and the audience sat dumbfounded. A few moments later, however, when Burns appeared in overalls and shook hands with Carkeek, who was bare-chested, they understood. Although the large crowd now understood the joke, they had no idea that this "Farmer" was going to put on one helluva show. Burns took Carkeek off the mat and tossed him about the stage, knocking the scenery around with him for fifteen minutes. He was finally declared the winner after 15 minutes as Carkeek was unable to throw him.
Then it was time for Lewis. 15 minutes proved to be too short a time for Lewis to throw Burns, and the "Farmer" won that bout as well. The next day the Chicago newspapers lauded this unknown "farmer" and within short order his story was known across the land.
Burns went on to become champion of America, even though he was a middle-weight. In his day, professional wrestling matches were, for the most part, real contests (but not always). Unlike amateur catch-as-catch-can (collegiate or freestyle wrestling), professional catch wrestling often had no time limit. Some matches were takedowns only and the match was decided by a throw; other matches were decided by pin or submission. On several occasions, title matches would last for several hours. In some the objective was to throw the opponent within a specified time limit. If the match wasn't decided by a throw within a certain time, you could win the bout with a three-second pin (holding both shoulder blades of your opponent on the canvas) or by submission. In most matches, the strangle or choke holds were barred ... in some, toe holds were banned. No points were given for takedowns, throws, reversals, escapes or the like in a professional match. Burns was an all-around wrestler who excelled on his feet as well as on the mat. He was a master of the pin, perfecting the Nelson series, the hammerlock, double-wrist lock, chicken wing and a great many toe holds. If Burns didn't pin you - he found a way to make you beg for mercy. From 1890-1893, "Farmer" Burns traveled around the country taking on all comers as part of various carnival shows. He never lost a fall. One of his biggest victories was over Japan's Matsada Sora Kichi, whom he defeated in Troy, New York, in four minutes.
In 1893, "Farmer" Burns opened a gymnasium in Rock Island, Illinois, where he trained several hundred students. Later still he opened a wrestling and physical culture school in Omaha, Nebraska, and helped others across the country establish schools as well.
In 1908, "Farmer" Burns top student, Frank Gotch, of Humboldt, Iowa, captured the world heavyweight championship when he soundly defeated the Russian Lion, George Hackenschmidt. Over the years there have been many Hack fans who have claimed that Gotch used "foul tactics" to win, but these claims are hardly worth entertaining. A Burns' trained wrestler didn't need to resort to foul tactics to win.
Burns involvement in wrestling was so rich and so deep that he taught amateur catch-as-catch-can in Iowa high schools. Without question, the reason why high school and college wrestling is so BIG in Iowa to this day, is a direct result of the forgotten but not lost foundation the "Farmer" laid there a century ago. In fact, in 1921, "Farmer" Burns coached Cedar Rapids Washington to the first-ever Iowa high school state championship, held in Ames, Iowa.
Burns also trained many other professional wrestlers. Three of the most noteworthy were light weight Jack Reynolds and heavyweights Earl Caddock, who won the world title in 1917, and Joe "Toots" Mondt, a man feared both outside and inside the ring.
In wrestling historian Mike Chapman's book, From Gotch to Gable - A History of Wrestling in Iowa, a number of renowned collegiate coaches heaped praise on Burns. One notable coach, Dave McCuskey, who led Iowa Teacher's College to the national team title in 1950 referred to Burns as "the cornerstone" of Iowa wrestling. "He organized clubs and taught young men to wrestle," McCuskey said.
It wasn't just wrestlers who believed in "Farmer" Burns, either. In 1910, when legendary boxer Jim Jeffries was making a comeback, in order to get in shape for his title bout against Jack Johnson, Jeffries hired Burns to help with his conditioning. While in training camp in Reno, Nevada, Burns got into a heated debate with another trainer, who just happened to be Billy Papke, a former middleweight boxing champion. Burns, in his 50's, was much older than Papke, but the "Farmer" decided that the two should settle their argument in an all-out street fight. Papke took a few swings, then Burns took him down and submitted him, making him cry "Uncle."
In 1914 Burns published a mail order course entitled, Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture. The course was sent out in a newsletter format. Each set of instructions was 16 pages long and contained two lessons. The first lesson was on exercise and physical culture; the second dealt with wrestling techniques. The complete course was 96 pages long; divided into six booklets containing a total of 12 lessons.
One of the amazing things about "Farmer" Burns is that he was thoroughly familiar with jiu-jitsu, judo and other methods of grappling and self-defense. His neck was so powerful and so resistant to pain, that he often challenged people to try and choke him out. No one ever succeeded although it is said that thousands tried.
In his mail order course "Farmer" Burns laid out his training method for wrestlers ... and for that matter, anyone who wanted to improve his overall health. Although Burns' contributions to the wrestling world were great, his training method is even more impressive, as he was teaching in the late 1800's and early 1900's what most people today would consider "Eastern" martial arts principles.
Deep breathing exercises (known as chi kung in China) were the foundation of Burns' training method. Gymnastic and calisthenic exercises took the place of heavy weight lifting. Hand and foot movements were done speedily in order to develop timing. Light dumbbells were used to stretch the muscles more deeply in every direction. Bridging was done to develop the muscles of the neck and spine. Isometrics were done solo or with a partner for added resistance. Distance running and boxing were encouraged to build "wind." And wrestling was considered the greatest exercise an athlete could participate in. Martin "Farmer" Burns died at the age of 77. It may be hard to imagine, but can you picture yourself as a person who will devote nearly 70 years of your life to your chosen art? That's what "Farmer" Burns did. He championed "America's martial art" and showed why it was so effective.
In the U.S. we do not typically use the words "master" and "Grandmaster" for our wrestling champions and our great teachers. But as we enter this new millennium, it is time to make an exception. It is time to break tradition. It is time to give Martin "Farmer" Burns his rightful place in history. He is the Grandmaster of American wrestling.
This is one of the most famous photographs in wrestling history, Farmer Burns hanging himself with a rope to demonstrate his neck strength, literally hanging himself with a rope, I would give my left pinky finger to own the original copy of this photo.
It's time for a funny sports story. It's almost hard to believe that this actually happened, but it did, the famous 1994 Cleveland Indians corked bat caper, this is like something out of Mission Impossible. This incident happened in 1994, at a game between the White Sox and Indians, the Chicago White Sox manager Gene Lamont suspected that Albert Belle was using a corked bat, so he alerted the umpires and the umpires confiscated the bat and took it to their room. Well, the Cleveland Indians hatched a plan and got one of their pitchers, Jason Grimsley, to crawl through the air ducts in the ceiling with a flashlight in his mouth and drop down in the umpires room to steal the corked bat back.
The Great Cleveland Indians Heist of 1994
On July 15, 1994, the Chicago White Sox traveled to Jacobs Field to take on the Cleveland Indians in a heated battle for the top of the American League Central division. What started as a typical division rivalry game would end up becoming one of the most eventful nights in the history of Major League Baseball.
Prior to the game, White Sox manager Gene Lamont was given word that Indians power hitter Albert Belle was using a corked bat. In the MLB, using a corked bat is considered a form of cheating. Having cork in the middle of a player’s bat allows for the bat to be lighter, letting hitters swing it at a quicker velocity. Although now proven false, it was also believed at the time that it made the ball “bounce” off of the bat, creating a trampoline effect.
Prior to Belle, only two players in MLB history had been caught with corked bats: Craig Nettles in 1974, and Billy Hatcher in 1987. Each of them received a 10-day suspension, setting a precedent. So, when Lamont challenged Belle’s bat prior to the game, leading to home plate umpire Dave Phillips confiscating it and locking it in the umpires’ dressing room, the Indians knew they’d be losing their star hitter for 10 days in the middle of an important fight for the division.
During the sixth inning of the game, the Indians organization asked fifth-year starting pitcher Jason Grimsley to pull off a mission typically seen in either a Mission: Impossible or Die Hard movie. The team knew there was a false ceiling above the umpires’ dressing room, which would allow someone to crawl through to get in. Grimsley was given the assignment to crawl through the ceiling and replace Belle’s bat with one that wasn’t corked. Grimsley grabbed the bat of teammate Paul Sorrento (another one of Belle’s bats couldn’t be used since all of his bats were corked), climbed up through the ceiling, and began his journey to the umpires’ dressing room.
Grimsley was able to accomplish the goal: He crawled to the room, dropped in, replaced the bat, and crawled back up and out. However, he didn’t do so without leaving a trail of evidence. When Phillips and his officiating crew made their way back to their dressing room after the game, they noticed chunks of the false ceiling were scattered around the room, and parts of the ceiling itself were bent. To add to that, they realized the bat in the room was not the same bat they had confiscated, since it was not as polished as Belle’s bat, and it was branded with Paul Sorrento’s name.
The Chicago police were immediately alerted, and they confirmed the umpires’ suspicions. Their report suggested someone had entered the room by crawling through the ceiling, replaced the bat, and exited back through the ceiling.
After this investigation, Bud Selig, then the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, demanded the Indians turn over Belle’s original bat, or he would call in the FBI to investigate and possibly prosecute. If the franchise cooperated and returned it, there would be no repercussions for the team. The Indians obliged, turning in the bat that was taken from the umpires’ dressing room. The bat was then x-rayed and sawed in half with both Belle and Indians’ general manager John Hart present as witnesses. It was determined the bat was corked, and Belle was given a 10-game suspension, which was lowered to 7 games upon appeal.
Despite the conclusion of the investigation, people were still intrigued with the break in and the replacement of the bats. Throughout the investigation, it as not revealed who the bat caper was that pulled off the heist. After it had finished, Hart admitted that the burglar was someone within the Indians organization.
“Obviously, it was someone internally with the Indians,” Hart said to the New York Times in a 1994 article. “I look at it as more of a misguided sense of loyalty with a teammate than anything else. The key is to keep it in perspective for what it is. This is a baseball team and guys that stay together and play together.”
The public didn’t know Grimsley was the one to pull off the heist until 1999 when he was with the New York Yankees, where he admitted to being the ceiling crawler in a New York Times article. In the article, Grimsley laid out the intricacies of the plan. He spoke about how he had done surveillance of the situation earlier in the game and created a mental map of the mission. Then, with the help of a member of the Indians organization, he climbed through the ceiling in the office of Indians manager Mike Hargrove with Sorrento’s bat and a yellow flashlight.
Through the adventure, he was nearly caught twice: once by a member of the grounds crew when he miscalculated which room he was above, and then by an unknown person who entered the umpires’ dressing room shortly after he climbed back into the ceiling.
“That was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I’ve ever experienced,” Grimsley told New York Times author Buster Olney at the time.
Despite this admittance of guilt from Grimsley, Major League Baseball held up their end of the deal, and no other member of the Indians organization other than Belle received punishment for the event.
Belle’s suspension ultimately had zero factor on the Indians’ season. The MLB suspended operations and canceled the rest of the season and playoffs due to the players going on strike before Belle’s suspension ended.
The strike-shortened season of 1994 had many intriguing storylines that didn’t have a chance to finish. Whether it was the surging Montreal Expos, or both Matt Williams and Ken Griffey, Jr. chasing the then-single season home run record of 61, the game of “what if” can only be played with these scenarios. Albert Belle, Jason Grimsley, a corked bat, and possibly the biggest heist in MLB history still stands out amongst the memories of the shortened season, and allowed the fans to see at least one storyline played out from beginning to end.
You know, I have to give Spike Dudley his due, he took bumps like nobody's business, he was 5'8", 154 pounds and his job was basically getting destroyed night after night. I mean just look at what his body went through over the years, absolutely brutal bumps. Truthfully, I would have to put Spike Dudley right up there with Mick Foley as far as toughness is concerned. For those that think wrestling is fake, go talk to Spike Dudley's Doctor.
The last bump on that compilation, the one where Spike Dudley is thrown out of the ring and supposed to go through the table outside the ring but misses and hits the floor, I remember watching that as it happened, and thinking Spike was permanently done. Here's what JR has to say about that bump.
I also have to say, a lot of the bumps Spike Dudley took were just reckless, they through him around like a ragdoll, particularly the power bombs in the ring where he landed hard on the back his neck, just reckless on the part of his opponents not taking care of him, they're lucky he wasn't paralyzed.
Many people consider WrestleMania 17 to be the greatest WrestleMania of all-time, this is my favorite moment from that WrestleMania, Edge spears Jeff Hardy from a 20 foot ladder. This is what wrestling is about, creating moments that live forever.
I just can't get enough of this place, the ancient Roman Colosseum. You ever wondered what it would look like if a NFL field was in the Colosseum? Yeah, me too. This is technically a soccer field, couldn't find a realistic simulation for an NFL field in the Colosseum, but you get the picture.
Speaking of hard hits in the NFL, just the mention of this man's name is enough to send chills up your spine. Jack Tatum. Honest to goodness, if there was one player in NFL history that I would not want to step on the field against, it would be Jack Tatum, the guy was genuinely frightening. The fact that he is listed as number 6 on this list is a complete joke, he should be number 1.
A great shot of the Jack Tatum helmet dislodging hit on Vikings receiver Sammy White in Super Bowl XI, that hit set the tone for that game, a psychological demoralizer of a hit.
Jack Tatum on the hunt in the 70s, back in those days a receiver took his life in his own hands catching a ball over the middle, it was the NFL version of "no man's land."
Perhaps I should explain why I rank Jack Tatum number 1 on my most feared hitters list, I truly believe Jack Tatum was the hardest hitter in football history, and quite possibly the most dangerous man as well. In 1978, he paralyzed Darryl Stingley he hit him so hard. A year after the Stingley hit, Tatum and Earl Campbell met head on in the Astrodome in the first quarter of a November game between the Oilers and the Raiders. With Houston at the 1-yard line, the entire building knew Campbell would get the ball. He took a handoff on the 1-yard line and veered off tackle to the right. Campbell never saw Tatum, who was obscured by his linemen and arrived at full speed, meeting him at the goal line with the crown of his helmet delivering a brutal blow right under Campbell's chin. The big running back won the battle, an oft-cited, celebrated moment of Campbell's superhuman strength. He absorbed the blow, stumbled backward and fell into the end zone, rolling over to see Tatum left in his wake. In 2020, Earl Campbell was quoted as saying, "The lick I took from Jack Tatum, that's the only time I ever felt somebody hit me," Campbell said. "A shock went down to the heels on my feet. And it burned. When I was standing on my head in my end zone, nobody knew this, but I was thinking, 'Something's wrong.'" Campbell has talked about this hit often as an example of the physicality of football. But he never told doctors about what he felt on the play or mentioned it until 2020. With this revelation, Campbell's surgeon that operated on his spinal stenosis went back and watched that play. It is terrifying," his surgeon said. "It's really dangerous. Earl probably had a contusion of the spinal cord at that time, which would explain the burning. He's really lucky he was not injured severely with that hit, the way his head snaps back and then the way he falls. That's a severe whiplash, which can cause spinal cord injury, especially with spinal stenosis." That's the reason I rank Jack Tatum at number 1, his hits could cause some serious damage.
I don't think Jack Tatum was a dirty player or evil or anything like that, he was just a damn hard hitter. The game was different back then, it was a culture of viciousness in the NFL, where you were more or less expected to deliver the boom, to intimidate, the rules weren't in place back then like they are today. I often compare it to a time when Dinosaurs roamed the Earth because the NFL was just a different world altogether back then, carnivores were allowed to roam the fields, Hardy Brown, Ray Nitschke, Dick Butkus, Richard Lane, Jack Lambert, Chuck Bednarik, Jack Tatum, even into the 80s with LT, Ronnie Lott, it's a known fact that Ronnie Lott modeled his game after Jack Tatum, with the bonecrushing hits. The NFL was just a different planet altogether back then.
Gladiator days right here, UFC 275, 2022, Glover Teixeira vs Jiri Prochazka. This was just a great, and I do mean great back and forth fight, notice in the final round Teixeira catches Prozazka with a brutal straight right in the face, I don't know how Prozazka survived it but he did and he turns the tide and gets Teixeira in a rear naked chokehold and makes him submit, it doesn't get any better than this as far as MMA is concerned.
"Since I learned to walk, I learned the meaning of money. I never had toys. I remember spending Christmas living under a stairwell with my sick mother and the rain leaking in. We didn't have a house of our own because mother couldn't pay rent."
This is one of the greatest moments in sports history, I remember watching the broadcast on the news right after it happened, it gave me goosebumps just watching it. To this day, I still don't think I've ever seen an eruption from a crowd at a sporting event like this before, the place went absolutely bananas. In 2006, Jason McElwain, a student manager for the Greece Athena High School basketball team with Autism, gained national attention when he scored 20 points in the final four minutes of a game. He was given the opportunity to play due to a large lead the team had, and his performance, which included six three-pointers, was captured on video and went viral. This event, known as "The Miracle Night," made him an inspirational figure and led to an ESPY Award for Best Moment in Sports. My wife has a friend that works with Autistic children so this story really hits home, and it's one of the most inspirational things you'll ever see.
This is wild, someone flew a drone directly over the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt and snapped up close photos of the very top of the Great Pyramid. Each one of those blocks weighs over 2.5 tons.
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Corey Kispert alley oop to Daniel Gafford, just watch how far back Gafford has to reach to grab the ball, with one arm mind you, and then jam it, ridiculously difficult dunk.
Anthony Edwards over John Collins, if Armageddon were a dunk, this is probably what it would look like.
So back to wrestling for a minute, WWE Judgment Day, 2004, JBL (Bradshaw) vs Eddie Guerrero. This was one for the books, there was nothing particularly special about the match itself, except for the fact that Eddie Guerrero took a brutal chair shot to the head from JBL, and bladed himself too deep on the forehead, he hit an artery and the cut spewed blood for the rest of the match. When you see a wrestler take a chair shot, there's nothing fake about that, they are really getting hit in the head with a steel chair, and many wrestlers have suffered concussions from it. You don't see chair shots in wrestling anymore, at least in WWE, they finally realized the damage it does to the brain and stopped the chair shots, which is a good thing. But back in 2004, the ruthless aggression era in WWE, chair shots were a normal thing. Another thing, when you see a wrestler bleeding, it's because they blade themselves, they'll carry a small razor concealed in their wristband or tights with them to the match, and when it's time to bleed they'll go down, cover up their head and secretly slice themselves on the forehead with the razor, and they'll start to bleed, and that's how wrestlers do it, and it gives the appearance that they've been busted open by a chair shot or such. So at Judgment Day 2004, Eddie Guerrero takes the chair shot to the head from JBL, he goes down and he blades himself, only he cuts himself too deep on the forehead, he hits an artery, and the cuts starts spewing blood, it spews blood for the rest of the match. By the time the match is over, the ring canvas looks like a slaughterhouse floor, that's how much blood Guerrero lost. There's an unwritten rule in wrestling that if you get injured, finish the match at all costs if you physically can, and after the cut, Guerrero continued to wrestle for another 10 minutes or so, bleeding all over the ring the entire time, and he finished that match, he literally risked bleeding out just to finish that match. After the match, Guerrero took 16 stitches to the forehead from the cut, he lost so much blood that he was unable to perform in the ring at full strength for Two weeks. One tough son of a gun was Eddie Guerrero, it was one of the gutsiest things I've ever seen in sports history, and craziest.
Eddie Guerrero is one of my favorite wrestlers of all-time, he was hard freakin' core.
How about a little music break, some Motorhead seems appropriate.
So, I recently watched another documentary called "Super Croc" my mind is always wondering, curious about things, and just allow me to take you back 110 Million years ago, to a time when a monster roamed our planet. In the country of Niger on the continent of Africa, you will find some of the harshest desert in the world, but 110 million years ago it used to be a tropical region with rivers, and in those rivers lurked a super crocodile, or super croc, a crocodile so massive that it feasted on the dinosaurs that shared the time period with it. The first fossils of Sarcosuchus, nicknamed "SuperCroc", were discovered by French paleontologists in the Sahara Desert in the 1940s and 1950s. While these initial finds were fragments, a more complete skull was found in 1964. However, it wasn't until 1997 and 2000 that American paleontologist Paul Sereno and his team discovered several more specimens, including one with a nearly complete skeleton, significantly expanding our knowledge of this giant prehistoric crocodile. In the documentary, it shows Paul Sereno with one of the skulls that he found protruding from the sand, Sereno lays down next to the skull and the skull was over 5'0" long, Sereno could actually almost fit in it's mouth, and that was just the skull, the length of the entire fossil was about 40 feet long, these crocodiles were 40 feet freakin' long. Folks, that's one massive crocodile, it's pretty much what you would expect a crocodile from the dinosaur era to look like. This crocodile used to roam the rivers of Niger, and wait for dinosaurs to approach the river, looking for a sip of water or to cool down. Once the dinosaur approached the river and got close enough, super croc would pounce out of the water and bite down on the dinosaur with it's massive jaws, studies suggest it had a bite force comparable to or even exceeding that of T. Rex, estimated at around 18,000 pounds. The damn thing had over 100 teeth in it's mouth, these teeth resembled railroad spikes and were cone-shaped and designed for gripping and tearing flesh. It also had armored plates along its back, neck, and tail. These bony plates, called osteoderms or scutes, served as armor and may have also helped support its massive weight, Super Croc weighed anywhere from 8 to to 10 tons. This stuff is just absolutely fascinating, it's hard to wrap your mind around such a beast roaming around. So of course the paleontologists had to put the fossils together and rebuild this thing, and of course they had to get an expert to recreate a model of it.
The fossils of Super Croc out together
A model of the Super Croc bones on display at a the French history museum.
Let's see what this thing looked like when it was roaming the Earth 110 million years ago. This is the model that was recreated, and this is Paleontologist Paul Sereno standing next to his beast.
The model of Super Croc on display in Australia.
Can you just imagine running into something like this?
This is the documentary, it's available for free viewing on YouTube, highly recommended. It didn't walk with Dinosaurs, it ate them.
By the way, if you haven't seen the movie "Lake Placid", I highly recommend it, the entertainment is off the charts. It's about a 30 foot long man-eating Crocodile that terrorizes a lake in Maine, and a dysfunctional group of police officers, a mythology professor, and scientists attempt to capture it, great stuff.
Random sports photos for today, Sonny Liston's hands.
One of the most fun scenes in action movie history, Point Break, the chase scene.
By far, the greatest shootout scene in a movie is the famous shootout scene in the 1995 film "Heat", starring Robert De Niro who plays bank robber Neil McCauley, and Al Pacino who plays detective Vincent Hanna, and of course Val Kilmer. The film is simply a cinematic masterpiece, from start to finish, you have two of the greatest actors that ever lived squaring off against each other in a deadly serious cat-and-mouse game. The Director Michael Mann pays extraordinary attention to detail, and the sound of the gunfire in the shootout scene is loud and very detailed as it echoes throughout the streets of downtown LA, it has a very sinister and terrifyingly real sound to it, Michael Mann purposely wanted it to sound that way, and it was the first time in movie history that you hear that kind of sound in a cinematic shootout, it was a groundbreaker in that regard. Another interesting note, the U.S. Marine Corps has used the shootout scene from the movie Heat in their training, specifically to demonstrate effective movement and tactics during a firefight, including how to properly reload under fire. The scene has been shown to recruits at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) San Diego and the School of Infantry, among other locations. It's just a masterpiece of a film and the shootout scene is the icing on the cake. Here is the scene in it's entirety.
One last thing about the movie Heat, both the film and the shootout are based on a true story, the story of the real life Neil McCauley and the detective that pursued him Chuck Adamson. Just like in the film, Adamson grew to admire McCauley's cleverness as a heist man, and the real life McCauley and Adamson had a chat in a coffee shop just like in the movie, and Adamson pursued McCauley to the bitter end when McCauley was killed in a shootout by Adamson after a heist gone bad, this all took place in Chicago in 1964. The Director of Heat, Michael Mann, got the idea for the movie when he learned about the story of the real life Neil McCauley and Chuck Adamson, Mann actually consulted with Adamson on the movie. It's a fascinating story, and if you're a fan of the film you should look it up sometime.
The real life Neil McCauley
Detective Chuck Adamson
I just want to mention something real quick, the shootout in the movie Heat is eerily similar to what happened in real life in 1997 in Hollywood California, when Two men, Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. and Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, attempted to rob the Bank of America branch located at 6600 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood and it went bad. That shootout lasted 44 minutes and is by far the most intense and brutal real life shootout with law enforcement that you'll ever see, the Two men were prepared for a shootout with police that day, they wanted a shootout, and they perfectly ready and willing to go out in a blaze of glory, and did. They were wearing specially designed body armor that police service hand guns couldn't pierce, they were wearing the armor from head to toe, they were trying to make themselves completely bulletproof. The cops kept shooting them with their service guns and the bullets would bounce off because of the body armor, it's why the robbers were able to last 44 minutes. On top of that, the robbers were using specially modified weapons that could release 10 bullets a second and the bullets from those weapons were hollow point, meaning they could pierce police vests. With the body armor, the weapons, and the ammo, it's like the cops were shooting it out with Two real life armored Terminators that were armed to the teeth with hollow point ammo, Two guys versus almost 400 cops, and the cops went through pure hell for 44 minutes before they were finally able to take them both out. The whole thing was broadcasted on TV as it happened and it was shocking to say the least. The incident famously became known as the North Hollywood shootout. If you've never heard about it, you should check out this documentary.
Interesting fact about Jack Lambert, he was given the nickname "Dracula in Cleats" because his missing teeth gave him the appearance of Dracula. It's one of the greatest nicknames because it fits him, not because of the missing teeth but because much like Dracula, Lambert was like something out of a horror movie, he was just a menacing presence, and much like Dracula, Lambert was out for blood. Love this image of him, he just looks so damn menacing.
Yes.
Time for a music break, one of the best bands out of the late 80s and 90s right here. The Seattle music scene was something special.
So, back to wrestling for a minute, and back to Mick Foley. I just want to say it makes me sick what The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) did to Mick Foley at the 1999 WWE Royal Rumble, it was totally reckless and it could have cost Mick Foley his life. At the 1999 WWE Royal Rumble, Mankind (Mick Foley) and The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) had an "I Quit" match, it's a match where you have to make your opponent say "I Quit", the referee has a microphone and throughout the match he constantly holds the microphone to the wrestlers faces and asks them if they want to quit. Anyway, there's a spot in the match at the end where The Rock handcuffs Mick Foley's hands behind his back, leaving him helpless, and The Rock is supposed to hit Mick Foley with 5 chair shots to the head, forcing him to quit, and Mick Foley and The Rock talked about it before the match and agreed that 5 was the number, 5 chair shots. Well, I guess it was the heat of the moment, the roar of the crowd, the adrenaline rush from it all, who really knows and there is no excuse for it, but The Rock hits Mick Foley with the 5 chair shots, and then he keeps going, 6,7,8,9,10,11, he hits Mick Foley 11 times total in the head with a metal folding chair. It was totally reckless by The Rock to go off script and take it overboard like that, and he almost killed Mick Foley that night. In Mick Foley's book, Foley details how The Rock was only supposed to hit him with 5 chair shots, but The Rock got out of hand and kept hitting him, and Foley also mentions that he turned his back to The Rock to tell him he'd had enough. Foley felt resentment towards The Rock for a while because of this. After the match, Mick Foley stumbled back stage, his shirt covered in blood, and his head split wide open, and he ran into the Rock and they chatted for a few moments but The Rock didn't seem to think he went too far. It is the most brutal thing I've ever witnessed in a wrestling match, and again, thank goodness chair shots aren't allowed in pro wrestling anymore. There's a documentary on YouTube called "Beyond the Mat" and it shows Mick Foley backstage with his family after the match, too graphic to post here.
One more thing about Mick Foley, he's the toughest wrestler in history by far, and one of the toughest men I've ever seen, tougher than a $2 steak is Mick Foley.
One more thing about that match, the fact that Mick Foley's hands were cuffed behind his back made the chair shots even worse because you have absolutely no way to brace for the impact, it's just boom, a straight shot to the head, you can't raise your arms to cushion the blows or anything. Mick Foley actually said that after the first chair shot he felt a shock of pain radiate throughout his entire body due to being cuffed and having to take the shots straight on. Chair shots were no joke, but having to take them cuffed made it even worse, and The Rock was really laying them in hard.
So at some point, you have to ask yourself why Mick Foley did what he did, why did he risk his life for our entertainment, why did he almost die multiple times for a wrestling match, what made him tick? The answer is really quite simple, he did it to create moments that will be remembered forever, to take the fans on an unforgettable emotional rollercoaster ride. That's really why all wrestlers do it. Rowdy Roddy Piper sums it up really well in this promo, one of the greatest promos in wrestling history by the way.
Martin "Farmer" Burns, one of the best catch-as-catch can wrestlers to ever live, and that basically means before wrestling was scripted, when it was actual real wrestling, the pioneering days of wrestling from the late 1890s to early 1900s. Many people consider Burns to be the father of American wrestling. I've heard and read all types of stories about Burns, some people call him the toughest man to ever live, some call him the most dangerous because of his knowledge of wrestling and holds, he knew everything there was to know about wrestling and he knew every hold in the book. He was said to have wrestled some 6,000 matches, real wrestling mind you, and only lost 6 matches. I don't know if that's true or not, but what I do know is that he trained and taught Frank Gotch, many people consider Gotch to be the GOAT of wrestling, so that should tell you something about Burns right there. And I also know that Burns handed Evan "Strangler" Lewis a loss, Evan Lewis was reputed to have been one of the most violent and psychotic wrestlers in the history of the sport, so any man that can beat Evan Lewis has to be a beast. One last thing about Farmer Burns, he was 5"7', 165 pounds and had a 20" neck, he purposely wanted his neck to be strong so he couldn't be choked out in wrestling matches, and Burns used to hang himself with a rope, literally hang himself with a rope to demonstrate his neck strength, there's a famous photo of him doing just that, it's one of the greatest photos in wrestling history. Here's a photo and a write-up about Farmer Burns, just look at his damn neck.
Catch Wrestling - The Ultimate Submission Fighting Art
Martin "Farmer" Burns -
The Grandmaster of American Catch Wrestling
A 20-inch neck is not too common in today's world. If you see someone with a neck of that size, he is probably a heavyweight wrestler or a football player that weighs between 250 and 300 pounds. Imagine, though, that in the late 1800's there was a 165-pound man with a neck 20 inches around. Now, he would look like he was part-bull, wouldn't he?
Well, in many ways, the man WAS part-bull. He was one of the most disciplined individuals the world has ever known. He had a work ethic that men today would shirk. Like the Shaolin monks in China, this man believed in training the mind and the body as one and his lifestyle was one of purity: no tobacco, no alcohol, no coffee, no tea and most importantly, no swearing.
His name was Martin "Farmer" Burns, the "Grandmaster of American Wrestling" ... a man that could take a six-foot hangman's drop and remain suspended in mid-air for three minutes .... while whistling the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy. Sounds too incredible to believe, but it is true. In the early 1900's "Farmer" Burns performed the hangman's stunt a half-dozen times a day; tens of thousands witnessed it.
More than any other accomplishment, the hangman's drop is what wrestling historians remember the most about "Farmer" Burns. But there was a lot more to the man than most people know. Taking the time to read about him will lift your spirits, give you strength and make you strive to make your life better than it already is.
Martin "Farmer" Burns was born February 15, 1861, in a log cabin located in Springfield Township, Cedar County, Iowa. When Martin was only eleven, his father died, leaving him behind with his mother, one brother and five sisters. In order to help support the family, Martin worked for a neighboring farmer for twelve dollars a month. He also took jobs sawing wood, plowing corn and digging graves.
Although he received little schooling, Martin made up his mind early on that he wanted to become a professional wrestler. When he was only eight years old he wrestled another boy for his first stake; fifteen cents was put up by each side. The opponent, James Magrin, was three years older than Burns, but young Martin tossed him and walked away with the prize. He also left with an even stronger desire to achieve even more.
In the book, Life Work of Farmer Burns (copyright 1911), it says, "From the age of twelve to the age of nineteen years he spent his time plowing corn in the daytime and wrestling evenings every time he secured a chance with whoever he could find to hold up the other end of the work. At the age of nineteen years he was quite well known in the neighborhood of Dennison, Iowa, as a very husky young man with a reputation as a winner in every match into which he had entered, and it was here that he met a professional wrestler for the first time in his life."
Burns' match with Graft lasted two hours and nineteen minutes and was declared a draw. Afterward Burns went to work in a grading camp, and on payday he would take on all-comers. It was in the grading camp that Burns developed many of his theories about wrestling, mostly because he had to continually whip bigger and stronger men who were in good condition.
In 1886, Burns lost his first match to Henry Clayton, who wrestled under the name of Evan "Strangler" Lewis (not to be confused with Robert Friederich, who wrestled in another era under the name of Ed "Strangler" Lewis). One year later Burns lost again, this time to Tom Connors. Burns later avenged both of these losses.
In the spring of 1889, Burns made a trip to Chicago with two carloads of hogs. Because he had a ten-day stay, Burns unloaded the hogs and went sight seeing. While wandering around the town he spotted various advertisements posted in regard to two wrestlers, Jack Carkeek and Evan "Strangler" Lewis, who were taking on all-comers. The bill read as follows:
JACK CARKEEK and EVAN LEWIS, the STRANGLER, at the OLYMPIC THEATRE. WILL MEET ALL COMERS. $25.00 to anyone staying fifteen minutes or $2.00 per minute after the first seven minutes. No limit to time and nobody barred. Parson Davis, Manager.
Burns, viewing this as his chance to break into the professional ranks of catch-as-catch-can wrestling, seized the day and went to the manager's office to say he wanted to take the $2 per minute challenge. The manager booked Burns for the following evening. But word soon got out and Carkeek met with the manager, trying to persuade him to call off the engagement. Burns was not to be turned away. He told Manager Davis that he would be in town for 10 days and any night would be just fine.
The following evening was not only Burns' chance to make it big, it was also the night he became known as the "Farmer." As wrestling was only part of the show and most of the rest was comedy, the crowd waited for J.W. Kelly, who showed up for work drunk, to make the introduction of the next contestant. Burns had to literally shake Kelly awake, and when he finally came to and saw him dressed in overalls, he rushed onto the stage.
"What would you call a man who hoes potatoes and squash and shucks corn?" Kelly asked.
"A farmer," replied the musician.
"Well, then," he continued, "if this farmer would get locked up in a house and the house would catch fire, what would happen to the farmer?"
"I do not know," the musician replied.
"Farmer Burns," replied Kelly. He then ran off the stage and the audience sat dumbfounded. A few moments later, however, when Burns appeared in overalls and shook hands with Carkeek, who was bare-chested, they understood. Although the large crowd now understood the joke, they had no idea that this "Farmer" was going to put on one helluva show. Burns took Carkeek off the mat and tossed him about the stage, knocking the scenery around with him for fifteen minutes. He was finally declared the winner after 15 minutes as Carkeek was unable to throw him.
Then it was time for Lewis. 15 minutes proved to be too short a time for Lewis to throw Burns, and the "Farmer" won that bout as well. The next day the Chicago newspapers lauded this unknown "farmer" and within short order his story was known across the land.
Burns went on to become champion of America, even though he was a middle-weight. In his day, professional wrestling matches were, for the most part, real contests (but not always). Unlike amateur catch-as-catch-can (collegiate or freestyle wrestling), professional catch wrestling often had no time limit. Some matches were takedowns only and the match was decided by a throw; other matches were decided by pin or submission. On several occasions, title matches would last for several hours. In some the objective was to throw the opponent within a specified time limit. If the match wasn't decided by a throw within a certain time, you could win the bout with a three-second pin (holding both shoulder blades of your opponent on the canvas) or by submission. In most matches, the strangle or choke holds were barred ... in some, toe holds were banned. No points were given for takedowns, throws, reversals, escapes or the like in a professional match. Burns was an all-around wrestler who excelled on his feet as well as on the mat. He was a master of the pin, perfecting the Nelson series, the hammerlock, double-wrist lock, chicken wing and a great many toe holds. If Burns didn't pin you - he found a way to make you beg for mercy. From 1890-1893, "Farmer" Burns traveled around the country taking on all comers as part of various carnival shows. He never lost a fall. One of his biggest victories was over Japan's Matsada Sora Kichi, whom he defeated in Troy, New York, in four minutes.
In 1893, "Farmer" Burns opened a gymnasium in Rock Island, Illinois, where he trained several hundred students. Later still he opened a wrestling and physical culture school in Omaha, Nebraska, and helped others across the country establish schools as well.
In 1908, "Farmer" Burns top student, Frank Gotch, of Humboldt, Iowa, captured the world heavyweight championship when he soundly defeated the Russian Lion, George Hackenschmidt. Over the years there have been many Hack fans who have claimed that Gotch used "foul tactics" to win, but these claims are hardly worth entertaining. A Burns' trained wrestler didn't need to resort to foul tactics to win.
Burns involvement in wrestling was so rich and so deep that he taught amateur catch-as-catch-can in Iowa high schools. Without question, the reason why high school and college wrestling is so BIG in Iowa to this day, is a direct result of the forgotten but not lost foundation the "Farmer" laid there a century ago. In fact, in 1921, "Farmer" Burns coached Cedar Rapids Washington to the first-ever Iowa high school state championship, held in Ames, Iowa.
Burns also trained many other professional wrestlers. Three of the most noteworthy were light weight Jack Reynolds and heavyweights Earl Caddock, who won the world title in 1917, and Joe "Toots" Mondt, a man feared both outside and inside the ring.
In wrestling historian Mike Chapman's book, From Gotch to Gable - A History of Wrestling in Iowa, a number of renowned collegiate coaches heaped praise on Burns. One notable coach, Dave McCuskey, who led Iowa Teacher's College to the national team title in 1950 referred to Burns as "the cornerstone" of Iowa wrestling. "He organized clubs and taught young men to wrestle," McCuskey said.
It wasn't just wrestlers who believed in "Farmer" Burns, either. In 1910, when legendary boxer Jim Jeffries was making a comeback, in order to get in shape for his title bout against Jack Johnson, Jeffries hired Burns to help with his conditioning. While in training camp in Reno, Nevada, Burns got into a heated debate with another trainer, who just happened to be Billy Papke, a former middleweight boxing champion. Burns, in his 50's, was much older than Papke, but the "Farmer" decided that the two should settle their argument in an all-out street fight. Papke took a few swings, then Burns took him down and submitted him, making him cry "Uncle."
In 1914 Burns published a mail order course entitled, Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture. The course was sent out in a newsletter format. Each set of instructions was 16 pages long and contained two lessons. The first lesson was on exercise and physical culture; the second dealt with wrestling techniques. The complete course was 96 pages long; divided into six booklets containing a total of 12 lessons.
One of the amazing things about "Farmer" Burns is that he was thoroughly familiar with jiu-jitsu, judo and other methods of grappling and self-defense. His neck was so powerful and so resistant to pain, that he often challenged people to try and choke him out. No one ever succeeded although it is said that thousands tried.
In his mail order course "Farmer" Burns laid out his training method for wrestlers ... and for that matter, anyone who wanted to improve his overall health. Although Burns' contributions to the wrestling world were great, his training method is even more impressive, as he was teaching in the late 1800's and early 1900's what most people today would consider "Eastern" martial arts principles.
Deep breathing exercises (known as chi kung in China) were the foundation of Burns' training method. Gymnastic and calisthenic exercises took the place of heavy weight lifting. Hand and foot movements were done speedily in order to develop timing. Light dumbbells were used to stretch the muscles more deeply in every direction. Bridging was done to develop the muscles of the neck and spine. Isometrics were done solo or with a partner for added resistance. Distance running and boxing were encouraged to build "wind." And wrestling was considered the greatest exercise an athlete could participate in. Martin "Farmer" Burns died at the age of 77. It may be hard to imagine, but can you picture yourself as a person who will devote nearly 70 years of your life to your chosen art? That's what "Farmer" Burns did. He championed "America's martial art" and showed why it was so effective.
In the U.S. we do not typically use the words "master" and "Grandmaster" for our wrestling champions and our great teachers. But as we enter this new millennium, it is time to make an exception. It is time to break tradition. It is time to give Martin "Farmer" Burns his rightful place in history. He is the Grandmaster of American wrestling.
This is one of the most famous photographs in wrestling history, Farmer Burns hanging himself with a rope to demonstrate his neck strength, literally hanging himself with a rope, I would give my left pinky finger to own the original copy of this photo.
Time for a little music break.
It's time for a funny sports story. It's almost hard to believe that this actually happened, but it did, the famous 1994 Cleveland Indians corked bat caper, this is like something out of Mission Impossible. This incident happened in 1994, at a game between the White Sox and Indians, the Chicago White Sox manager Gene Lamont suspected that Albert Belle was using a corked bat, so he alerted the umpires and the umpires confiscated the bat and took it to their room. Well, the Cleveland Indians hatched a plan and got one of their pitchers, Jason Grimsley, to crawl through the air ducts in the ceiling with a flashlight in his mouth and drop down in the umpires room to steal the corked bat back.
The Great Cleveland Indians Heist of 1994
On July 15, 1994, the Chicago White Sox traveled to Jacobs Field to take on the Cleveland Indians in a heated battle for the top of the American League Central division. What started as a typical division rivalry game would end up becoming one of the most eventful nights in the history of Major League Baseball.
Prior to the game, White Sox manager Gene Lamont was given word that Indians power hitter Albert Belle was using a corked bat. In the MLB, using a corked bat is considered a form of cheating. Having cork in the middle of a player’s bat allows for the bat to be lighter, letting hitters swing it at a quicker velocity. Although now proven false, it was also believed at the time that it made the ball “bounce” off of the bat, creating a trampoline effect.
Prior to Belle, only two players in MLB history had been caught with corked bats: Craig Nettles in 1974, and Billy Hatcher in 1987. Each of them received a 10-day suspension, setting a precedent. So, when Lamont challenged Belle’s bat prior to the game, leading to home plate umpire Dave Phillips confiscating it and locking it in the umpires’ dressing room, the Indians knew they’d be losing their star hitter for 10 days in the middle of an important fight for the division.
During the sixth inning of the game, the Indians organization asked fifth-year starting pitcher Jason Grimsley to pull off a mission typically seen in either a Mission: Impossible or Die Hard movie. The team knew there was a false ceiling above the umpires’ dressing room, which would allow someone to crawl through to get in. Grimsley was given the assignment to crawl through the ceiling and replace Belle’s bat with one that wasn’t corked. Grimsley grabbed the bat of teammate Paul Sorrento (another one of Belle’s bats couldn’t be used since all of his bats were corked), climbed up through the ceiling, and began his journey to the umpires’ dressing room.
Grimsley was able to accomplish the goal: He crawled to the room, dropped in, replaced the bat, and crawled back up and out. However, he didn’t do so without leaving a trail of evidence. When Phillips and his officiating crew made their way back to their dressing room after the game, they noticed chunks of the false ceiling were scattered around the room, and parts of the ceiling itself were bent. To add to that, they realized the bat in the room was not the same bat they had confiscated, since it was not as polished as Belle’s bat, and it was branded with Paul Sorrento’s name.
The Chicago police were immediately alerted, and they confirmed the umpires’ suspicions. Their report suggested someone had entered the room by crawling through the ceiling, replaced the bat, and exited back through the ceiling.
After this investigation, Bud Selig, then the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, demanded the Indians turn over Belle’s original bat, or he would call in the FBI to investigate and possibly prosecute. If the franchise cooperated and returned it, there would be no repercussions for the team. The Indians obliged, turning in the bat that was taken from the umpires’ dressing room. The bat was then x-rayed and sawed in half with both Belle and Indians’ general manager John Hart present as witnesses. It was determined the bat was corked, and Belle was given a 10-game suspension, which was lowered to 7 games upon appeal.
Despite the conclusion of the investigation, people were still intrigued with the break in and the replacement of the bats. Throughout the investigation, it as not revealed who the bat caper was that pulled off the heist. After it had finished, Hart admitted that the burglar was someone within the Indians organization.
“Obviously, it was someone internally with the Indians,” Hart said to the New York Times in a 1994 article. “I look at it as more of a misguided sense of loyalty with a teammate than anything else. The key is to keep it in perspective for what it is. This is a baseball team and guys that stay together and play together.”
The public didn’t know Grimsley was the one to pull off the heist until 1999 when he was with the New York Yankees, where he admitted to being the ceiling crawler in a New York Times article. In the article, Grimsley laid out the intricacies of the plan. He spoke about how he had done surveillance of the situation earlier in the game and created a mental map of the mission. Then, with the help of a member of the Indians organization, he climbed through the ceiling in the office of Indians manager Mike Hargrove with Sorrento’s bat and a yellow flashlight.
Through the adventure, he was nearly caught twice: once by a member of the grounds crew when he miscalculated which room he was above, and then by an unknown person who entered the umpires’ dressing room shortly after he climbed back into the ceiling.
“That was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I’ve ever experienced,” Grimsley told New York Times author Buster Olney at the time.
Despite this admittance of guilt from Grimsley, Major League Baseball held up their end of the deal, and no other member of the Indians organization other than Belle received punishment for the event.
Belle’s suspension ultimately had zero factor on the Indians’ season. The MLB suspended operations and canceled the rest of the season and playoffs due to the players going on strike before Belle’s suspension ended.
The strike-shortened season of 1994 had many intriguing storylines that didn’t have a chance to finish. Whether it was the surging Montreal Expos, or both Matt Williams and Ken Griffey, Jr. chasing the then-single season home run record of 61, the game of “what if” can only be played with these scenarios. Albert Belle, Jason Grimsley, a corked bat, and possibly the biggest heist in MLB history still stands out amongst the memories of the shortened season, and allowed the fans to see at least one storyline played out from beginning to end.
You know, I have to give Spike Dudley his due, he took bumps like nobody's business, he was 5'8", 154 pounds and his job was basically getting destroyed night after night. I mean just look at what his body went through over the years, absolutely brutal bumps. Truthfully, I would have to put Spike Dudley right up there with Mick Foley as far as toughness is concerned. For those that think wrestling is fake, go talk to Spike Dudley's Doctor.
The last bump on that compilation, the one where Spike Dudley is thrown out of the ring and supposed to go through the table outside the ring but misses and hits the floor, I remember watching that as it happened, and thinking Spike was permanently done. Here's what JR has to say about that bump.
I also have to say, a lot of the bumps Spike Dudley took were just reckless, they through him around like a ragdoll, particularly the power bombs in the ring where he landed hard on the back his neck, just reckless on the part of his opponents not taking care of him, they're lucky he wasn't paralyzed.
Many people consider WrestleMania 17 to be the greatest WrestleMania of all-time, this is my favorite moment from that WrestleMania, Edge spears Jeff Hardy from a 20 foot ladder. This is what wrestling is about, creating moments that live forever.
Some more nice hits.........
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAC2almlat4
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
Nicely done sir. 👍
I just can't get enough of this place, the ancient Roman Colosseum. You ever wondered what it would look like if a NFL field was in the Colosseum? Yeah, me too. This is technically a soccer field, couldn't find a realistic simulation for an NFL field in the Colosseum, but you get the picture.
Speaking of hard hits in the NFL, just the mention of this man's name is enough to send chills up your spine. Jack Tatum. Honest to goodness, if there was one player in NFL history that I would not want to step on the field against, it would be Jack Tatum, the guy was genuinely frightening. The fact that he is listed as number 6 on this list is a complete joke, he should be number 1.
A great image of Jack Tatum on the sidelines.
A great shot of the Jack Tatum helmet dislodging hit on Vikings receiver Sammy White in Super Bowl XI, that hit set the tone for that game, a psychological demoralizer of a hit.
Jack Tatum on the hunt in the 70s, back in those days a receiver took his life in his own hands catching a ball over the middle, it was the NFL version of "no man's land."
Perhaps I should explain why I rank Jack Tatum number 1 on my most feared hitters list, I truly believe Jack Tatum was the hardest hitter in football history, and quite possibly the most dangerous man as well. In 1978, he paralyzed Darryl Stingley he hit him so hard. A year after the Stingley hit, Tatum and Earl Campbell met head on in the Astrodome in the first quarter of a November game between the Oilers and the Raiders. With Houston at the 1-yard line, the entire building knew Campbell would get the ball. He took a handoff on the 1-yard line and veered off tackle to the right. Campbell never saw Tatum, who was obscured by his linemen and arrived at full speed, meeting him at the goal line with the crown of his helmet delivering a brutal blow right under Campbell's chin. The big running back won the battle, an oft-cited, celebrated moment of Campbell's superhuman strength. He absorbed the blow, stumbled backward and fell into the end zone, rolling over to see Tatum left in his wake. In 2020, Earl Campbell was quoted as saying, "The lick I took from Jack Tatum, that's the only time I ever felt somebody hit me," Campbell said. "A shock went down to the heels on my feet. And it burned. When I was standing on my head in my end zone, nobody knew this, but I was thinking, 'Something's wrong.'" Campbell has talked about this hit often as an example of the physicality of football. But he never told doctors about what he felt on the play or mentioned it until 2020. With this revelation, Campbell's surgeon that operated on his spinal stenosis went back and watched that play. It is terrifying," his surgeon said. "It's really dangerous. Earl probably had a contusion of the spinal cord at that time, which would explain the burning. He's really lucky he was not injured severely with that hit, the way his head snaps back and then the way he falls. That's a severe whiplash, which can cause spinal cord injury, especially with spinal stenosis." That's the reason I rank Jack Tatum at number 1, his hits could cause some serious damage.
I don't think Jack Tatum was a dirty player or evil or anything like that, he was just a damn hard hitter. The game was different back then, it was a culture of viciousness in the NFL, where you were more or less expected to deliver the boom, to intimidate, the rules weren't in place back then like they are today. I often compare it to a time when Dinosaurs roamed the Earth because the NFL was just a different world altogether back then, carnivores were allowed to roam the fields, Hardy Brown, Ray Nitschke, Dick Butkus, Richard Lane, Jack Lambert, Chuck Bednarik, Jack Tatum, even into the 80s with LT, Ronnie Lott, it's a known fact that Ronnie Lott modeled his game after Jack Tatum, with the bonecrushing hits. The NFL was just a different planet altogether back then.
Music break. Taking it back to the 80s.
No, I'll tell you what won't be a good look, when Aaron Rodgers shows up at the Steelers season opener looking like this.
Gladiator days right here, UFC 275, 2022, Glover Teixeira vs Jiri Prochazka. This was just a great, and I do mean great back and forth fight, notice in the final round Teixeira catches Prozazka with a brutal straight right in the face, I don't know how Prozazka survived it but he did and he turns the tide and gets Teixeira in a rear naked chokehold and makes him submit, it doesn't get any better than this as far as MMA is concerned.
"Since I learned to walk, I learned the meaning of money. I never had toys. I remember spending Christmas living under a stairwell with my sick mother and the rain leaking in. We didn't have a house of our own because mother couldn't pay rent."
This is one of the greatest moments in sports history, I remember watching the broadcast on the news right after it happened, it gave me goosebumps just watching it. To this day, I still don't think I've ever seen an eruption from a crowd at a sporting event like this before, the place went absolutely bananas. In 2006, Jason McElwain, a student manager for the Greece Athena High School basketball team with Autism, gained national attention when he scored 20 points in the final four minutes of a game. He was given the opportunity to play due to a large lead the team had, and his performance, which included six three-pointers, was captured on video and went viral. This event, known as "The Miracle Night," made him an inspirational figure and led to an ESPY Award for Best Moment in Sports. My wife has a friend that works with Autistic children so this story really hits home, and it's one of the most inspirational things you'll ever see.
Spectacular photo of the Pryamids of Giza in Egypt from an airplane.
This is wild, someone flew a drone directly over the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt and snapped up close photos of the very top of the Great Pyramid. Each one of those blocks weighs over 2.5 tons.