THE BOMB THREAT

October 01, 2023

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. We like our stirrups high and our bat flips saucy.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about a ballplayer who went from pinstripes to a prison cell in the most extreme way possible.

Jerry Priddy was a second baseman who played in the 40s and 50s.

He came up through the Yankees farm system with Hall of Fame shortstop, Phil Rizzuto.

The two were best friends, and pure magic up the middle.

So much so, that Joe McCarthy moved his all-star second baseman, Joe Gordon, over to first in order to make room for Priddy when Rizzuto was called up to the big leagues.

During his brief stint with the Yankees, Priddy was a solid defensive player, and he played a role in the team's success in winning the American League pennant in ‘41 and ‘42.

Many thought he would be better than Rizzuto, but that never materialized.

After leaving the Yankees, Priddy played for a few other teams before retiring from baseball in ’53.

In the years after his playing career, he struggled to make ends meet.

Priddy tried to make it as a professional golfer, and had an unsuccessful run on the PGA Tour in ’60 and ’61.

Then he started Priddy Paper Products Co., a wholesale distributor, with former outfielder George Metkovich.

By ‘73, Priddy was down bad.

He was running an ad agency in LA and things were not going well.

On June 5th, in a desperate attempt to make some quick cash, Priddy anonymously called the offices of the Princess Cruise Line and made a bomb threat against one of their ships, the Island Princess, which was carrying 850 people.

He demanded $250,000 in exchange for telling them the location of the bombs, and naturally, Princess Cruises called the FBI immediately.

Agents left a fake package, containing what Priddy thought was $250K, at the requested drop site.

When he came to pick it up, they arrested him - pretty terrible attempt at being a criminal.

Instead of admitting that he had a failing business and needed the money, Priddy doubled down in court - testifying that he made the calls, but only because he feared for his life.

He claimed that an unknown man with a Mexican accent had threatened to kill him and his family unless he agreed to serve as front man for the extortion scheme.

The jury did not believe him.

Within a few hours, they sent Priddy to prison for nine months - a pretty light sentence considering he was facing 20 years.

After serving 4.5 months, he walked out as a free man, but six years later he died of a heart attack at home.

WHAT TO WATCH

NEW SEGMENT ALERT.

I read, watch, and listen to a ton of interesting baseball content on a weekly basis - so I thought of this segment called “What to Watch.”

Basically, it’s just one recommendation each week with the coolest video or movie I came across that I think everyone should check out.

If you guys like this, let me know by replying “love it” to this email and I’ll do them every Sunday.

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

His full name was Raymond Roy Rippelmeyer; try saying that five times fast.

Although Ray was a two-sport star in college and a pretty good athlete, he only lasted 18 games in the big leagues, and the numbers weren’t that pretty.

But he made a great coach, and spent many year in the Phillies’ organization doing just that.

He served as the pitching coach at the big-league level for nine years, guiding the staff during three seasons when they clinched the National League East Division championship (1976–1978).

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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