Is an obscure baseball player remembered today by a jazz song named after him?

DID YOU KNOW…?

Is an obscure baseball player remembered today by a jazz song named after him?

By Jack Bagley

didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com

Copyright © 2025 Jack Bagley

And at last, it’s Spring!

The time of birds singing, bees buzzing, longer days and shorter nights, and … yes … baseball.

The annual renewal of the world, in other words.

I always enjoy spring. I’m not a fan of hot weather, nor of cold weather. Like Goldilocks, I like my weather to be “just right.” Like the weather we find in the springtime.

I also prefer my trivia just right … and so do you, or you wouldn’t be reading this.  Let’s get into this week’s just-right collection of interesting stuff!

Did you know …

… a popular singer’s publicity stunt backfired on her? In 2012, singer Taylor Swift (born 1989) offered a concert to the school that gathered the most votes in an online contest. Seeing the opportunity to pull a prank, thousands of Facebook and Reddit trollers banded together to hijack the contest, which saw 14,000 schools participating. After the pranksters pulled their chicanery, the winner of the Swift concert was the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. But Swift got the last laugh – rather than perform the concert, Swift donated $10,000 to the school, a contribution matched by the contest’s four sponsors – a total gift of $50,000. (I guess Swift backfired the backfiring on the backfirers.)

… a 1981 murder remains unsolved, despite the fact that between 30 and 45 people watched it happen? Ken McElroy (1934-1981) was a resident of Skidmore, Missouri, and to all reports something of a town bully. McElroy was not very well liked by the other residents of his small town, due in no small part to his alleged meanness and bullying of others. After he shot and wounded an elderly storekeeper, he was shot and killed by at least two people in broad daylight. Despite a crowd of 30 to 45 people who saw everything, nobody except McElroy’s wife could – or would – identify a shooter. The District Attorney declined to press charges, and as of today, McElroy’s murder remains unsolved.

… a bridge in Washington state was built just for squirrels? The “Nutty Narrows” bridge is strung between two treetops in the town of Longview, Washington. It was built in the early 1960s by the owner of a construction company who had gotten tired of the squirrels outside his office being run over as they tried to cross a street. He put a bridge between treetops crossing the road, and squirrels have had a safe passage ever since. Longview residents even decorate the bridge with lights at Christmas time. (That’s just nuts.)

… a Nobel-prize winning author had his novel adapted for a movie by another Nobel-prize winning author? To Have and Have Not, published in 1945, was written by Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). The novel was adapted for the screen by William Faulkner (1897-1962). (Great book becomes great movie … film at 11.)

… an obscure baseball player of the early 20th Century is remembered today in a jazz song? In 1969, musician Dave Frischberg (1933-2021) wrote a catchy jazz tune but was having difficulty coming up with lyrics to fit. One day, Frischberg was looking at a list of baseball players and realized that many of their names would fit the melody. One, a pitcher named Van Lingle Mungo (1911-1985), had the name that not only caught the musician’s eye, it became the refrain for the song, and ultimately its title. For his part, Mungo said he liked the song, with his wife saying it had the name of her favorite baseball player as the title. Mungo did ask Frischberg at one point if he could ever expect any money from it. The musician said he couldn’t, but if Mungo wanted to, he could write a song called “Dave Frischberg” and keep all the royalties from it. Additional trivia note: The song “Van Lingle Mungo” is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, even though Mungo himself is not. (It is a rather catchy name, though.)

… the Statue of Liberty has very big feet? If Lady Liberty were a living being at her current size, she would need a size 879 shoe. For comparison, the largest shoe ever actually made to be worn by a human is a size 37AA, made for Robert Wadlow (1918-1940), who was also the tallest human who ever lived. Wadlow was 8 feet, 11.1 inches tall when he died. (Holy fallen arches, Batman!)

… you may know a fang-farrier? In fact, you probably encounter one at least twice a year – well, you should, anyway. A fang-farrier is a rather obscure but delightful nickname for a dentist. (Call your dentist that and let me know what happens.)

… Walmart stores routinely fill their shelves with a popular breakfast food when hurricanes are forecast? The stores have found that they sell seven times as many Strawberry Pop-Tarts™ before such storms as they do at other times, so the stores overstock on the food. (Thanks to Mason for the tip!)

… one species of jellyfish could be called immortal? In response to physical damage or trauma, the Turritopsis dohrnii jellyfish can actually revert backward in its development process, all the way back to being just a polyp. And the little critter can do it over and over again. (Well, we all have to be famous for something.)

… only two mammal species actually like spicy food? Humans, of course, are one of them, and with some people I know, the spicier the better. But the other may surprise you – it’s the tree shrew. Chinese researchers have learned that tree shrews have a mutation in one of their ion channel receptors (whatever that is) which makes them less sensitive to capsaicins, the chemicals that give “heat” to peppers. (Hot stuff indeed!)

Now … you know!