Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that teaches you something interesting about baseball without taking ourselves too seriously.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about a beef between an Athletics player and a reporter.

Dave Kingman was a pretty decent ballplayer, but he was also sick in the head.

He got the nicknames “King Kong” and “Sky King” from the massive dingers he’d hit on the baseball field, but Kingman is one of those guys who takes “practical jokes” wayyyy too far.

The kind of person who would shit in your locker and say it was “just a prank.”

Most of his jokes were aimed at press people, especially female reporters - who he hated with an absolute passion.

When he was with the Mets, he constantly antagonized New York Times reporter, Jane Gross.

He also dumped a bucket of ice water on Don Friske from the Arlington Heights Herald, because he didn’t like an article he wrote.

But by far, his most egregious “prank” came when he was with A’s in ‘86.

From the moment she began covering the Athletics, Kingman made it clear that he wasn’t a fan of Susan Fornoff.

He never once granted her an interview, and on the occasion of his 400th career home run, he actually refused to answer anybody's questions until she left the room.

Kingman had a habit of openly insulting Fornoff, and even tried to get "some dirt” of her from another A’s beat writer.

When the team was in Kansas City, Kingman went down to a local pet store and purchased a rat for two bucks.

He wrapped the rodent, put it in a box, and attached a label to it that read “my name is Sue.”

Dave had the box delivered to Fornoff, and even though she was suspicious of the package, she ended up opening it.

When the reporters came into the clubhouse that day, Dave announced that the “Rat Patrol” was in the building, started throwing tissues towards Fornoff, and asked aloud “Does anyone want to cry?”

The A’s apologized to Fornoff, fined Kingman $3,500 and threatened to release him if he ever pulled any shit like that again.

When asked if he’d apologize, here was the quote Kingman gave:

That was Dave’s last season in baseball, and no one has missed him 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:

Amzie “Chappie” Snodgrass only got one hit in the three games he played in the big leagues.

The Orioles released him and after that, there’s not much record of his whereabouts.

In 1904, he popped up playing with the Baton Rouge Red Sticks, but that didn’t last long either.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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

• The Fix: One of baseball’s earliest gambling scandals 

• The Hijacking: Len Koenecke’s bizarre death

• The Spy: Half James Bond, half Babe Ruth