Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that loves baseball as much as Tony Gwynn loved the art of hitting.

The man was an absolute master at his craft.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about the last forfeit in MLB history.

On August 10, ‘95 the Dodgers were forced to take an L against the Cardinals.

The reason: souvenir baseballs.

Let me explain…

At the pinnacle of "Nomomania", Hideo Nomo took the mound for his 19th start of a season that eventually earned him a Rookie of the Year Award.

As a promotion, LA decided to give away souvenir balls to all 53,361 fans that showed up to the ballpark that night.

In the seventh inning, fans began littering the field with the free balls and it caused a six-minute delay.

Tommy Lasorda had to pull his team off the field while stadium officials got things under control.

But that was just the beginning.

In the eighth, Eric Karros got tossed after telling the home plate umpire, Jim Quick, that he’d made a horseshit call.

Things were getting pretty tense by the time the ninth rolled around.

The Cardinals were up 2-1, and Raul Modesi stepped in to lead things off for the Dodgers.

Modesi worked the count 3-0, and then Quick made a couple of questionable strike calls turning what should’ve been a walk into a strikeout.

We can all admit that the 3-1 pitch was about nine inches off the plate.

Following the strikeout, all hell broke loose in Dodger Stadium and fans started throwing thousands of balls on the field.

With a complete shit show on their hands, the umpires decided to call the game, thus forcing the Dodgers to forfeit.

After the fiasco, MLB changed their rules about what kinds of items could be given to fans before the games.

It’s probably for the better.

BASEBALL TRIVIA

Find the answer in the bottom of this email!

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:

Putsy is from New Orleans, where apparently, everyone has a nickname.

His brothers Monroe and Raymond were nicknamed “Money” and “Rainbow.”

To this day, Caballero is one of the youngest players to ever make it to the show - he got called up when he was only 16.

He didn’t do much with the bat over the course of his career, but he collected a ton of memorabilia.

Putsy’s collection included autographed balls from Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Pete Rose, and Eddie Mathews.

Unfortunately, everything was lost in ‘05 when Hurricane Katrina hit NOLA.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

If you like this story, check out some of our past favorites:

• The Kissing Bandit: How a stripper became a baseball icon

• The Bullet: Hazing saves a rookie from a gunshot wound

• The Lightning Strike: Ray Caldwell almost dies, then finishes the game

BASEBALL TRIVIA ANSWER: Willie Keeler (45 games)