Pud Galvin, just being Pud

[birdman42]

A fun story in this morning's Washington Post--Pud as baseball's first "juicer"?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/24/AR2009052402494.html

Has anyone read Abrams' "Dark Side" book? What did you think of it?

Bill

[Joe_G.]

I don't have a membership to the Washington Post and can't read the article "The History Of Chemistry In Baseball: Elixirs, Potions Came Long Before Steroids" but noticed a similar mention of Pud Galvin in another periodical, "ESPN" the magazine (it’s a free subscription).

Zev Chafets wrote a piece on Manny Ramirez, supporting his enshrinement into Cooperstown. In the article, he cites several questionable actions by some of the HOF members including Pud Galvin.

"In 1889, pitcher Pud Galvin drank monkey testosterone."

I was surprised by this, sounds more like an episode of "Fear Factor" than any form of performance enhancing drugs. Would such a practice possibly help in the slightest?

[oldjudge]

Probably did the monkey a lot of good

[Joe_G.]

Jay, now that is just wrong. Best laugh I had all day.

[birdman42]

According to the article his "Brown-Sequard Elixir" contained, among other ingredients, the ground-up testicles of dogs and guinea pigs. Basically, he was juicing with straight testosterone (and probably a good dose of alcohol along the way).

Bill

[prewarsports]

Maybe drinking all those balls is why Pud had like 12 kids or something if I remember my past readings correctly.

Rhys

[oldjudge]

This explains the derivation of the word "highball".

Highball---The name for a family of mixed drinks that are composed of an alcoholic base spirit and a larger proportion of a non-alcoholic mixture.

Now we know what the original mixture was.