Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily email that keeps you entertained and delivers mind-blowing bits of baseball history you never knew existed.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about a ballplayer who died in the stupidest way possible.

In 1900, Tom O’Brien was a 27 year-old first baseman for Pittsburgh Pirates.

Seemed like a promising young man, but he definitely wan’t the brightest crayon in the box.

Tom was coming off a solid year at the plate - .290/.349/.404 - and after the season ended, he got a special invitation from his former team, the New York Giants.

The Giants were heading on a barnstorming tour to Cuba, and they thought O’Brien would be a great addition to the squad.

Tom agreed to the trip, and in late October, he set sail with the team.

Along the way, things went terribly wrong.

Apparently, Tom was feeling just fine until he noticed that he and his pal, "Kid" Gleason, were the only ones who hadn't gotten seasick.

Gleason and O’Brien got paranoid - thinking that something was actually wrong with them because they hadn’t gotten ill.

Then in a case of the most ridiculous logic you’ve ever heard, someone had the bright idea for the ballplayers to drink the seawater.

You know, just to be safe.

So Gleason and O’Brien grabbed a bucket full of salt water, chugged it and proceeded to get sick af.

Gleason got off easy, but O’Brien got violently ill and by the time the Giants arrived in Cuba, he was bed-ridden.

Tom lost 40 pounds in just three weeks, and also suffered from stomach hemorrhages and internal ruptures.

Then he got Typhoid-pneumonia, which is absolutely as bad as it sounds.

Despite the best efforts of the doctors, Tom passed away on February 4, 1901 after battling for several months.

Lesson learned: seawater is for the sea creatures.

YO MAMA

Ladies and gents, Mother’s Day is upon us.

Shoutout to all the snack-providing, grass-stain removing, multi-tasking super heroes out there that we call “mama.”

Of course, we love our moms all year round, but this is an opportunity to show them a little extra love.

If you need some gift ideas, we made a quick list:

• The Baseball Bat Wine Mug

• “Because I Said So” Tee

• Signed Yadier Molina Mother’s Day Bat

• A Jersey w/ Her Favorite Player

And even if you don’t get a gift - call your mom and tell her you love her.

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:

Footer played in the big leagues for a week, and didn’t do so hot.

In eight games, he got five AB’s and got exactly zero hits.

He did squeeze across a run during one of his pinch running efforts, but other than that his Major-League career was pretty uneventful.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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

• The Shorts: White Sox show some leg

• The Cockroach: Dirty Kurt clutches up

• The Fortune Teller: No talent and a good story

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

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