Assorted weirdness from around the baseball diamond.

1.

On September 30, 1934, Charley O’Leary of the St. Louis Browns became the oldest big leaguer to get a hit and score a run. He was 51.

2.

In Japan, catchers learn to crouch by having spiked boards placed under their behinds.

3.

From 1936 to ’46, Hall-of- Famer Joe “Flash” Gordon played exactly 1,000 games for the Yankees. In that time, he had exactly 1,000 hits.

4.

Breaking Babe Ruth’s homerun record will never be 4-gotten: It happened in the 4th inning of the 4th game of ’74, when the Braves’ Hank Aaron, #44, hit a homer off the Dodgers’ Al Downing, #44.

5.

In the 1960s, Kansas City A’s owner Charlie Finley installed a mechanical rabbit that popped up out of the ground behind home plate to deliver new baseballs to the umpire. Finley wanted the rest of the owners to install rabbits too, but none did.

6.

Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller and Minnesota Twins outfielder Denard Span have something odd in common: Both hit their mothers in the stands with a foul ball. Feller hit his mom in 1939 (he broke her collarbone); Span hit his during a spring training game in 2010. Both moms made full recoveries.

7.

What minor leaguer—who never played in the majors— made a $4 million salary? Michael Jordan. In 1994 he played for a Chicago White Sox farm team. Jerry Reinsdorf, who owned the Sox and the Chicago Bulls, honored  Jordan’s basketball contract even as Jordan fizzled out as a baseball player.

8.

In 1989 the Reds’ temperamental outfielder Paul O’Neill dropped a fly ball. He angrily kicked the ball. It went directly to the cutoff man and stopped a runner from scoring.

9.

In 1957 the Phillies’ Richie Ashburn fouled a ball that hit a fan named Alice Roth. As she was being taken away on a stretcher, Ashburn fouled off another…and hit her again.