Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for October 03, 2014

Wow. A triad of sports-related factoids.

Baseball in England???? Surely it must have been “cricket”!

C.B. Fry was a terrific athlete in his day but he was also a nut job who (with his wife) ran a “boarding school” of sorts that would’ve been shut down within a week if it opened today.

baseball played in 1755 hmm I bet that was cricket

I bet Jack got that nickname because he was so tiny he just slipped right through the other team’s defence, I also love the story of C.B there, I can imagine the Albanians, “We love you amazing sport man! Please be our king!”

C.B. Fry would have made a killing in endorsements today!

We used to play rounders at school in England in the 50s. I didn’t hear of baseball until I emigrated in 1970.

People forget, or like to forget, there was a huge Nazi movement here in America before the war.Even had a huge portrait of George Washington behind them to legitimize it. Lots of Jewish people got hurt by the browshirts as they tried to disrupt the meetings.Which is actually what the brownshirts were for. To disrupt opponents meetings, and provide protection for their meetings. Much like today’s SEIU union.

Thanks, Bruno Z; I was wondering if that early form of baseball in England was called “rounders,” since I read in the 1960s that a form of baseball called “rounders” is played in Australia. Australians also play rugby.

GuiltyBystander,C.B. Fry was born 6 years after Charles Dickens died. I once read that Dickens’ novel titled Nicholas Nickleby, once published, put an end to the boarding schools for boys where the boys were abused by their schoolmasters. Was C.B. Fry influenced to follow Wackford Squeers’ bad example? His wife treated the boys as badly as he did; the Squeers couple were fictional characters in Nicholas Nickleby.

Man, I could’ve been in the NFL back then. Of course, considering Muggsy Bogues, I could’ve been in the NBA.