Interesting Autograph "Stuff"

[MooseDog]

Great thread Jim, here's one...

Got this back from Joe Sprinz a catcher who had a 21 game MLB career with the Indians but played several years with the SF Seals in the Pacific Coast League. He was nice enough to lay out his life/career and sign this one pager but he left out what might be the most significant event of his entire life, at least the one that he's remembered for.

As part of a publicity stunt for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, the 100th "Anniversary" of baseball, and his 37th birthday, Sprinz, now a member of the Seals, agreed to attempt to catch a baseball dropped from a blimp from a height of 800 feet, to set a new world record.

The previous year Hank Helf and Johnny Pytlack of the Cleveland Indians caught balls dropped from the 708 foot Terminal Tower in Cleveland

Sprinz "caught" a ball on the fifth drop, but the force of the ball drove his glove into his face, breaking his jaw and basically making mincemeat of his face. He got knocked out cold, and reportedly dropped the ball, but for the sake of the world record, the Guinness folks ruled it a "catch".

It should be noted that this record has stood longer than Dimaggio's hitting streak.

SI Vault article on this short-lived fad