Baseball player and ventriloquist? There was one who expelled several

In the last 150 years, there have been a significant number of baseball players who have called on their talents (not necessarily related to the sport) to help them out on the diamond.

Waler Carlisle, the former circus acrobat, managed to complete a triple-play from center field.

Rube Foster used his pipe-smoking skills to signal his players on how to run the bases.

Pat Venditte used his switch-hitting skills to become the first two-handed pitcher in professional baseball history.

But one of the rarest talents — and let’s face it, the coolest talents — was pitcher Jack “Waddy” Wadsworth.

You’ve probably never heard of Jack. He wasn’t very good at playing baseball.

The right-hander pitched four seasons in the Majors (one with the Cleveland Spiders, one with the Orioles and two with the Louisville Colonels), finishing with a 6-38 record with a 6.85 ERA. He walked 100 more than he struck out in his career. He even set a low efficiency record during a game played in 1894.

But even though Wadsworth was never able to get many opponents off the mound, he could get them dumped. Of the parties, of course. Here, an in-depth profile of the Ohio native that was published in the July 1952 issue of Baseball Digest.

“The leap to fame that he gave [Wadsworth] it was due to the fact that he used balls that had been used in games to practice his rare talent as a ventriloquist. In the process, he caused several batters to be thrown out of games; players who had never been taken before.”

That’s how it is. Like the great Edgar Bergen, Wadsword projected his voice from the mound to the plate to send hitters into the showers.

And according to the Digest, Wadsworth picked opportune opportunities to use his hidden talents. He expected “tight spots” in the game or when “top hitters” were at the plate. He once got Dan Bouthers, nicknamed “Big Dan,” thrown out of a game by imitating an insult towards umpire Tim Hurst.

“If you didn’t waste your money on drink, his wife wouldn’t have to wash other people’s clothes.”

Bouthers couldn’t have been too happy about that.

On another occasion, Wadsworth did something similar to future Hall of Famer Roger Connor, who was the all-time home run leader before Babe Ruth took the title from him. Connor stepped into the batter’s box looking to expand his all-time home run total. But somehow, a scathing comment slipped out of umpire Hank O’Day’s mouth, without his lips moving.

“Hank, you are many things I would hate to be.”

O’Day, who ranks third on the all-time list for ejections, wasted no time in throwing Connor out of the game.

Even Wadsworth’s teammates didn’t know he was throwing his voice. That is, until he appeared on a local church program as a ventriloquist act. And eventually, after one too many times, umpires became, as Digest put it, «hep» to Wadsworth’s tricks. He didn’t try it any longer.

But maybe it’s something, more than 100 years later, teams can work with pitchers on this spring? Maybe every club should hire a team ventriloquist. Fastball’s not what it used to be? Try throwing your voice to make Mike Trout call Dan Iassogna a nincompoop.

Aren’t those the types of intangibles baseball scouts always talk about?

Via: mlb.com