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Today’s story is about a former Brooklyn Dodger that got himself into a sticky situation one night in Cuba.

Van Lingle Mungo was genuinely as crazy as his name was.

At times, he was absolutely brilliant on the mound, but he had a tough battle with controlling his temper and staying sober.

He played almost his entire career for the Brooklyn Dodgers - 11 of his 14 seasons - and made the all-star team four times.

In the 30’s, he was really one of the only quality pitchers they had.

His manager, Casey Stengal, had a great quote that really gives you a sense of Van’s personality.

As the years went on, Mungo became increasingly frustrated with the reality of being on a shitty team, and he got in several fights with teammates - verbal and physical.

But in ‘41, he was trying to turn over a new leaf.

The Dodgers were training in Cuba that spring.

Van had gotten sober, and even opted to stay in a room with Whit Wyatt because he was quieter and stayed out of trouble.

Unfortunately, that didn’t stop him from falling back into his old habits.

On Saturday, March 8, Mungo was scheduled to pitch, but the game got rained out.

That night, he went out drinking and got caught by his coaches acting sloppy in public.

They slapped him with a fine and kicked him out of training camp the next day.

For Mungo, that meant one thing - time to go on a bender.

He continued to drink on Sunday and ended up missing the boat that was supposed to take him back home to the states.

After he missed the boat, arrangements were made to have him take a flight out of Havana the following morning.

The Dodgers even had a detective keep an eye on Van while he had dinner and went back to his room to make sure he would be ready for the flight.

But Mungo had other ideas.

After he came back to his room at the hotel, he had two women over - Lady Ruth and Miriam Morgan - and they decided to go out on the town.

They came back at 6am and went into Lady Ruth’s room - which was right next door to Miriam’s room - where she had been staying with her husband.

According to The Herring Design Quarterlies, this is what happened next:

The husband woke up and discovered his wife wasn’t in bed, he went next door, only to find Mungo butt naked with his wife and her friend.

A fight ensued, and Mungo gave the man a black eye.

The husband returned with a butcher knife, and a Dodgers executive by the name of Babe Hamberger had to hide Mungo in a laundry cart and smuggle him out of the hotel.

He got the pitcher down to the wharf where a seaplane was waiting, and Mungo narrowly escaped with the police hot on his tail.

No one knows if that’s exactly how it went down, but whether or not it’s completely true, the whole story just adds to the legend of Van.

In ‘81, Dave Frishberg made Mungo even more unforgettable when he made this super-random-but-also-fantastic Jazz song in his honor.

TIMELESS TRIBUTES

It seems like all good ideas start in a garage - Homage is no different.

Back in 2007, Ryan Vesler founded the company while living at his parent’s house, and the goal was simple: celebrate the places, people and moments that have shaped our history.

Whether it’s childhood mornings spent watching MTV, to the first time you watched Griffey go yard - wearing their gear always takes me on a walk down memory lane.

You won’t find stuff like this anywhere else:

They’re having a 40% off BOGO deal for Memorial Day Weekend, so if you’re thinking of picking up a few things - now is definitely the time.

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:

Toots doesn’t have the best head shot, but what can you expect from a guy that only had two AB’s in 1914?

The only thing we really know about this guy is that he stepped in a big-league batter’s box two times, and struck out on both occasions.

Pretty forgettable on the baseball field, but nonetheless earned his way onto our list.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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

• The Wild Flight: ‘86 Mets f**k up a plane

• The King & His Court: Eddie Feigner is the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of

• The Hack: Cardinals employee goes rogue

That's it for today. Tomorrow we're back at it like a bad habit. See ya!

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