Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that loves baseball as much as Red Sox fans love singing Sweet Caroline at Fenway.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about a group of fans that got to manage a Major-League team for one night.

Without a doubt, Bill Veeck is one of the most legendary executives in baseball history.

Throughout his career, he owned the St. Louis Browns, The White Sox, and the Cleveland Indians.

When he ran the Browns, Bill signed Larry Doby - who became the first black ballplayer in the American League.

That was definitely his biggest and most important contribution to the game, but he was also a genius marketer.

Here’s some of his other highlights/lowlights:

• Disco Demolition Night

• Eddie Gaedel’s One-Day Career 

• White Sox wear shorts

But one of my favorite concepts he ever rolled out was called “Grandstand Manager’s Night” where Veeck made dreams come true.

The concept was simple: let the fans manage the team for a night.

The game was late in the year against the Philadelphia Athletics, and both teams were already out of the playoff race.

At that point in the season, the goal was really just to get people out to the ballpark and show the fans a good time.

There was a special section for the “Grandstand Managers” and Veeck started the game by giving them all a lineup card to fill out.

He tallied up the votes, and that was the Browns’ lineup for the night.

Next, the fans were able to vote on in-game decisions.

They were given two cards: one saying yes, and the other saying no.

They voted on things like whether or not a player should steal, or if they should shift the infielders to double play depth with a runner on first.

And honestly, they did pretty damn good.

The fans made the right call most of the time, and the Browns won 5-3.

SIGNED AND DELIVERED

From time to time, our friends at Sportsmemorabilia.com run some pretty good discounts, and a few of these deals today are insane.

At the moment, a bunch of different collectibles are up to 30% off.

Here’s a few gems I found in the autographed baseball section of the site:

• Barry Bonds “500 Club” ($54 OFF)

• Elly De La Cruz ($38 OFF)

• David Ortiz “2013 WS MVP” ($180 OFF)

• Andy Pettitte “‘99 WS Champs” ($81 OFF)

• Carlton Fisk ($39 OFF)

• Reggie Jackson “Mr. October” ($22 OFF)

• Jim Abbott “No Hitter 9-4-93” ($25 OFF)

• Mark McGwire “Battle of the Bay” ($120 OFF)

• Darryl Strawberry ‘86 World Series ($45 OFF)

And if you don’t see what you’re looking for on that list, there’s hundreds more that I couldn’t fit in this email.

WEBGEM WEDNESDAY

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:

With a name like “Trick” the guy just sounds shady - turns out, he was.

He started his career with the Red Stockings, but was kicked off the team after only 15 games for “crooked play” which sounds to me like he was probably throwing games.

Nine years later, McSorley made his return to the big leagues, but this time he was playing in the American Association for the Toledo Blue Stockings.

Ultimately, he played partial seasons for four different major-league teams, but his performance on the field was nothing to write home about.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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

• The Comeback: From scrub to Cy Young

• The Draft Pick: First overall pick becomes the biggest bust in MLB draft history

• The Nutjob: One of the craziest lunatics in baseball history