THE SEA WATER

October 19, 2023

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that jumps into your inbox like Leody Tavares.

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.

He 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, who was later involved in the Black Sox scandal, 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.

SWEET SIGNATURES

Our friends at Steiner Sports have autographs from pretty much everyone you can think of; from Bo Jackson to Max Patkin.

They’ve even got this fantastic photo of Mike Tyson, Dwight Gooden, and Darryl Strawberry signed by all three of them.

And to sweeten the deal, they’ve got some special promotions running today.

Here's a few awesome deals I found:

And if you don’t see something you like from that list - there’s thousands of other collectibles and memorabilia on the site.

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:

Maybe it's me, but anyone named Skeeter just comes off super sketchy.

He played 12 years in the big leagues, and apart from a couple of decent seasons in ‘43 and ‘45, his numbers weren’t very impressive.

After his time in the show, Newsome coached a bit in the minor leagues for the Phillies and the Tigers.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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