Sort of OT: When, Who and Where Trivia - Answers Posted

[Sean]

The Hail Mary originated in the mid-'70s when Roger Staubach threw a desperation pass to Drew Pearson to win a playoff game against the Vikings in Metropolitan Stadium. I can't recall the announcer. Maybe Lindsey Nelson?

[Sean]

The Mendoza line was named for Mario Mendoza, a shortstop for the Braves. It originated in the early '80s, and was attributed to the Chicago White Sox bullpen in an article written for SI, I believe by Frank Deford.

The Sox relievers used the term to refer to anyone hitting below .220, though now it's used to refer to those hitting below .200.

[Sean]

The four corners "offense" was invented by Dean Smith, and I think that he coined the term. It was used as a stall tactic at a time when college basketball didn't have a shot clock. It required four players to stand in four corners of a square, while a point guard dribbled in the center of this square created by the other players. It was used with Phil Ford in the late '70s, but may go back to Charlie Scott in the '60s.

It was usually used late in a game to protect a lead, but I remember Smith using it for the entire game against Duke (with Gene Banks, Jim Spanarkle and Mike Giminsky) in 1978.

[Butch7999]

The 7th Inning Stretch story, possibly apocryphal, involves President William Howard Taft rising from his seat
to stretch his legs at a game, presumably in Washington and sometime around 1909-1910, and much of the rest of the crowd
promptly following suit in respectful deference to his office. For some reason it soon became a tradition at all games
even if Taft wasn't there.

[Butch7999]

The Eephus pitch is generally attributed to Rip Sewell, then with Pittsburgh, who fooled around with it in the 1940s.
We've heard that other guys occasionally lobbed one as far back as the early 1900s, but we remember it best for
being clobbered for a home run by Ted Williams in an All-Star game, although the details escape our faltering memories
and we're not gonna cheat by looking it up.

[edhans]

I think the Baltimore chop dates to the 1890s, when Wee Willie Keeler popularized it.

[mybuddyinc]

#6 - The Single Wing (SW)

Probably one of the first football offenses, so I'll say 1870's.

LE..LT..LG..C..RG..RT..RE

..............QB

..............HB................SW

..............FB

Princeton used it forever, probably into 1950s.

I "think" The Citadel still uses it.