Sunday, April 01, 2007

The Greatest April Fool's Day Jokes

This Time magazine cover is almost too painful to be funny, but there have been some riotous April Fool's Day jokes over the years.

The legendary Sidd Finch Hoax remains my favorite.
In its April 1985 edition, Sports Illustrated published a story about a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the Mets. His name was Sidd Finch and he could reportedly throw a baseball with startling, pinpoint accuracy at 168 mph (65 mph faster than anyone else has ever been able to throw a ball).

Surprisingly, Finch had never even played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the "art of the pitch" in a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the "great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa." Mets fans everywhere celebrated at their teams's amazing luck at having found such a gifted player, and Sports Illustrated was flooded with requests for more information. But in reality this legendary player only existed in the imagination of George Plimpton, the writer of the article.
More here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just love that cover but I'm afraid it is a dream that will never come true. Stopped by to thank you for the Iraqi blog links. I had not seen such a complete list before and I linked to several of them myself. I'm a little interested to know more about your Vietnam coverage and when you were there. Anyway, good digs, keep it up.

Anonymous said...

To expatbrian

So you think the cover will not come true?
Just 9 months to go before he is safe - almost short enough to hold one's breath.
Hope TIME saved the master used for that cover. Could come in useful soon.