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Today's story is about an outlandish trick play that ended a ballplayer's career.

In '87, Dave Bresnahan was a backup catcher for the Williamsport Bills, Cleveland’s AA team.

Bresnahan wasn't a great player, but he was clever.

His batting average was consistently in the low .200's, which means he didn't start much, and thus, had quite a bit of time on his hands.

Which allowed him to do more productive things - like planning trick plays.

This particular play involved a potato disguised as a baseball, and it was some of Bresnahan’s best work.

For this trick to work successfully, you need a few things to happen:

1. There has to be a runner on third base.

2. The potato ball has to look real.

3. You must keep the potato from being detected by the umpire.

Bresnahan carved the potato into a sphere to give it the shape of a baseball.

Then, he and another teammate played catch with it a few times to make it look used.

Bresnahan even took it as far as painting red stitching on the potato.

Dave finally got his chance to pull off the trick during a game against the Reading Phillies.

Once a runner got to third, he told the umpire that a string had broken on his glove and he needed to grab his backup leather.

Of course, Bresnahan was keeping the potato in his spare glove, so when he returned he had it with him.

He caught the next pitch and sailed a throw down to third base.

The runner bought it, and when he got home, Bresnahan tagged him for the easy out.

The umpires got together after the play and talked it over.

At the time, there was no rule against this, but umpires said that because Bresnahan deliberately deceived the runner, it was an illegal play.

The Bills coach pulled Bresnahan from the game immediately and fined him on the spot.

He was released the next day and hasn't played pro ball since.

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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:

Twink had a one-day career with the Reds, and he got absolutely shelled.

In two innings of work, Twining gave up four hits, a walk, and a dinger.

After that, it appears Cincinnati had seen enough.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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• The Draft Pick: He got drafted first overall, then it was all downhill from there

• The World Series Riot: Detroit goes nuts

• The Fence: One of the most lopsided trades in baseball history