Charles Radbourn

You hear it all the time, and if you're not a baseball fan it sounds obnoxious and ignorant, but I’m going to say it again; baseball is full of history, and that's what makes it great. The sport was invented and practiced in the mid-1700’s. It may have possibly been earlier with different variations of rules, but you get the point. The game is almost as old as dirt.

Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn played for a few teams between 1880 and 1891, most notably the Boston Beaneaters. He played pitcher and played right field, and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.

He wasn’t much of a hitter, only a .235 career average. His pitching was good, but not spectacular; 309 wins and a little over 1800 strikeouts. Remember, this was a day when there was no such thing as relief pitchers. He had 59 wins in 1884 alone. So taking that into account, he wasn’t that impressive beyond 1884 and 1885.

He died at the young age of 42 in 1897. Oddly enough, he died in Bloomington, one of the twin cities around ISU. I think this is the reason my sociology teacher this semester knew about the following story.

When discussing symbols in society and how they’re interpreted, and he brought up that he had a picture with Radbourn and the rest of the Beaneaters in his office for a very specific reason. In fact, here is the very same picture:

Why is it so famous? Why is HE so famous? WHATS THE BIG DEAL?!

Look closer at Radbourn in the last row on the left side.

See it yet?

Here’s a closer look:

That right there, ladies and gentlemen, is the first photographic evidence of the middle finger in history.

For as long as people have been flipping the bird, did you ever think where it came from, or where it started? Here’s a step in the right direction. This just goes to show that anyone at anytime can make tiny change for a huge amount of people for years to come.

So, in honor of 'Old Hoss', a big middle finger to all my readers, and have a great day!