1. Did you know that
there was once a time
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2. when golf was dangerous,
and airborne?
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3. Each time they were
going up in these planes,
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4. they were risking their lives,
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5. maybe even the lives of the
other people on the course.
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6. Do you remember
when playing hockey
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7. could get you arrested?
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8. The next day, Boston's
homicide squad informed Shore
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9. that if Bailey
doesn't pull through,
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10. he will be arrested and
charged with manslaughter.
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11. Or when shooting real pigeons
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12. could win you an Olympic medal?
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13. It really shows how slapdash
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14. those early modern
Olympics were.
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15. It turns out to be
a really messy event.
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16. It literally is a bloody mess.
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17. These are the things we
used to do for fun, for money,
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18. or maybe out of boredom,
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19. that we'll never see again.
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20. Were they dangerous? Certainly.
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21. Deadly? Occasionally.
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22. But boy, wasn't it exciting.
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23. Americans love to
move fast and compete.
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24. So when cars began to replace
horses as a way to get around,
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25. some folks thought,
"Wait a minute.
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26. What if we replace them
in the sport of polo, too?
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27. What could go wrong?"
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28. Almost every sport has its
origins in some real danger.
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29. Polo seems pretty dangerous,
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30. with horses flying around
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31. and jockeys with mallets
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32. swinging them as hard
as they can at balls.
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33. But just, like,
imagine this in a car.
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34. If you're
anxious to risk life and limb,
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35. here's an ideal game: auto polo.
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36. We're gonna take
this sport from the UK,
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37. which is so prestigious,
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38. and we're just gonna
redneck it down.
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39. We're gonna play
polo out of our cars.
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40. Great idea.
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41. Auto polo is invented by
Ralph "Pappy" Hankinson in 1911.
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42. He is a Ford dealer
in Topeka, Kansas
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43. looking for a way
to sell more Fords.
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44. Hankinson comes up
with a promotional idea
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45. modeled along the
lines of horse polo,
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46. but instead of riding a horse,
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47. people will be driving one
of these new Model T Fords.
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48. This idea really came to Pappy
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49. because other people
were doing it.
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50. They were just playing
around in their farms,
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51. and Pappy is really the one
that comes up with the idea
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52. to make formalized rules around
it and call it auto polo.
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53. In auto polo, you
have the driver,
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54. and then in the passenger
seat, you have the mallet man.
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55. And that person's job
is to whack a large ball
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56. about the size of a
basketball into a goal
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57. while traveling very fast,
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58. leading to accidents, crashes,
all kinds of mayhem.
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59. Just think about this, right?
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60. The car's trying to
go as fast as it can
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61. to get to the ball, just
like a horse would in polo,
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62. but what if the driver
slams on the brakes?
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63. The mallet man is going flying,
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64. but they're flying
right into a field
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65. with a bunch of other cars.
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66. People refer to baseball
as the national pastime,
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67. boxing as the sweet science,
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68. but do you know what
auto polo is known as?
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69. The undertakers' delight.
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70. If they were doing it today,
I would go and watch it.
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71. A couple of drunk, good old boys
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72. in a couple of pickup trucks
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73. with some mallets,
whacking up ball around,
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74. causing all sorts of
mayhem and destruction.
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75. Almost overnight,
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76. auto polo goes from country
fields to the big city.
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77. By 1912, just one year after
Hankinson starts the thing,
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78. they're doing auto polo
in Madison Square Garden
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79. in New York City.
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80. They started drawing
crowds of 5,000 people
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81. because they would show
up for the competition,
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82. but they would stay
for the carnage.
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83. In the course of a typical
match, cars roll over,
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84. they crash into the stands,
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85. players get ejected
from the cars,
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86. they're suffering
tremendous head injuries,
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87. some cases losing limbs.
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88. They got so bad that
they started having doctors
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89. and nurses as a
part of the teams.
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90. At one auto polo match
in Buffalo in 1916,
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91. this car kind of bucks and it
throws out both of the players
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92. and then it crosses the street
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93. because it's busted
through one fence
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94. and then goes
through another fence
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95. where eventually the car stops.
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96. These kinds of crazy outcomes
are what the fans expect.
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97. They wanna see wild things,
they wanna see danger,
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98. they wanna see damage.
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99. It doesn't take
long for the cars
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100. to start getting modified
to be better competitors,
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101. so they might chop the top
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102. or put like a ramming
bar on the front.
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103. I mean, it became like
a demolition derby,
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104. but some dudes
hanging out the side.
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105. And it's not just
the players in harm's way.
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106. You get a point for each goal,
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107. but if you run over the referee,
you only lose half a point.
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108. Can you imagine a sport
that doesn't punish you
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109. for hitting the ref with a car?
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110. And that's why fans
absolutely love it.
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111. Here's a deadly sport
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112. in which the cars
are getting destroyed
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113. 'cause they're
hitting each other,
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114. they're running over refs,
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115. people are losing body parts
'cause they're getting clipped.
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116. And as fun as that is to watch,
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117. it's a nightmare financially.
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118. Obviously, the
danger in this sport
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119. is what led to it
going away, right?
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120. No. It was that
people were like,
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121. "Yeah, I really don't
wanna smash up my car.
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122. It's really expensive."
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123. There's the irony.
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124. Auto polo met its
end by the 1930s,
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125. a victim of high repair costs
and the Great Depression.
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126. But one sport that survived
for centuries is golf.
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127. And there was a time
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128. when some tried to
give the classic game
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129. a highly unusual upgrade
that made it more extreme.
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130. So it's right after
the First World War
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131. and people are just
enjoying themselves again.
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132. People are getting out there
having a little fun with golf.
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133. It's regained some popularity
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134. now that things are
a little more calm.
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135. They start building
golf courses everywhere,
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136. people are learning
how to play golf,
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137. it becomes a go-to sport.
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138. But, this isn't
great for rich people
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139. who want golf to
still be exclusive.
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140. That made the kind of
upper class folks feel like,
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141. "Hmm, now it's everyone's game.
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142. How do we do
something different?
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143. How can we make it a
little more dangerous,
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144. a little more difficult?"
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145. In the 1920s,
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146. there is still one thing the
common people don't have.
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147. Private planes.
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148. Enter aerial golf.
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149. The first iteration
of aerial golf
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150. was invented at a golf course
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151. in Westbury, Long
Island in New York.
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152. This is the golden age
of massive estates.
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153. Yellow Rolls-Royces.
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154. This is the Long
Island of Jay Gatsby.
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155. This is a weird, weird sport,
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156. and I feel like only
the excessively wealthy
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157. could think this was
anything close to normal.
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158. Aerial golf and regular golf
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159. are actually incredibly similar.
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160. They're both played on
regulation golf courses.
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161. They both include
keeping track of score,
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162. except for one
critical difference.
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163. Your first shot on the course
is dropped from an airplane
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164. flying at 500 feet above.
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165. So, one person is
down on the ground,
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166. their partner would
go up in an airplane,
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167. and they're gonna
drop a golf ball
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168. from a minimum of 500 feet.
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169. Golf balls are
flying out of the air,
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170. and when they finally
hit to the ground,
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171. provided no one's been, you
know, hit in the noggin,
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172. the second player on the team,
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173. then he plays to
the hole with it.
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174. I'm a big fan of
boneheaded ideas.
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175. They're fun to do, they're
fun to play around with.
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176. I think that when you get
to wasting all that fuel,
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177. wasting all that technology
to just drop a ball down,
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178. I think that that's
ill-conceived.
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179. But the elite love
their new game so much,
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180. they decide to expand the scope
of aerial golf even further.
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181. Once they got a
little bored with this,
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182. they realized they
had to turn up,
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183. make it a little more exciting,
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184. and that's where they came up
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185. with the nine-hole
course special.
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186. Rather than flying
over one golf course,
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187. let's have our holes spread out,
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188. except each hole is
a different airport.
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189. Nine hole courses made up
of nine separate air fields
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190. are created.
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191. They decide to move
and elevate aerial golf,
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192. flying a plane to the next
airport, playing there,
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193. flying to the next
airport, playing there.
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194. You have to think
about it, like,
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195. whose air traffic controlling
all of these planes,
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196. and how many players are playing
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197. and how many planes are flying?
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198. That's insane.
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199. On paper, this looks stupid,
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200. but in practice, it's
actually really stupid.
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201. Each time they were
going up in these planes,
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202. they were risking their lives,
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203. maybe even the lives of the
other people on the course.
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204. In the end, safety
concerns are actually
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205. what end up grounding
the game of aerial golf.
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206. You had planes
buzzing at 50 feet,
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207. you had all this increased
air traffic around airports.
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208. So finally, aerial golf
was put to rest in 1930.
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209. Aerial golf might
not have lasted long,
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210. but it was popular enough
for famous figures,
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211. like New York City Mayor
Fiorello La Guardia
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212. and baseball player Ty
Cobb to play a few rounds.
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213. Today, football is the most
popular sport in America.
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214. The whole family can head
to the stadium on a Sunday,
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215. have wings, a soda, and
feel the rush of excitement.
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216. But in the earliest
days of football,
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217. the atmosphere was a
whole lot different.
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218. American football
originates in the 1860s
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219. on college campuses,
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220. where young college men
are sort of combining
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221. basically rugby, soccer,
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222. to form what we now
think of as football.
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223. Football in this time period
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224. was very different
from today's game.
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225. There was no forward pass.
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226. It was very much
in the trenches,
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227. people slamming their
bodies into each other.
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228. They developed
plays with names
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229. like the Princeton V
and the Flying Wedge,
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230. and these plays are essentially
just one team's players
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231. running at full force at
the other team's players.
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232. And that's when the
brutality of the game
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233. really starts to come alive.
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234. We're putting all
our weight together,
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235. increasing the power
and the velocity
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236. with which this
collision's gonna happen,
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237. wearing nothing more than a
sweatshirt and some pants.
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238. These max-momentum plays
weren't just allowed.
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239. They were encouraged.
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240. Because of this, guys
are getting injured,
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241. they're getting disfigured,
they're getting crippled,
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242. or worse.
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243. These players are playing
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244. without, really, any
kind of protection.
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245. What little protection they
have is extremely flimsy.
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246. It's horsehide,
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247. and they're stuffing
textbooks down their uniforms.
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248. They're certainly
not wearing helmets.
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249. The grudge matches
between Harvard and Yale
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250. make national headlines
for their violence.
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251. So in 1894,
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252. Harvard and Yale go head to head
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253. in what's considered the
Hampton Park Bloodbath.
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254. They would lock arm in arm
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255. and just ram at each
other head first.
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256. You have a guy that
gets his nose broken,
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257. you have a guy break
his collarbone,
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258. and another guy gets knocked
out during a timeout.
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259. They think he might be dead.
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260. This was what was
not only acceptable,
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261. it was what was required.
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262. The
president of Harvard,
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263. in an editorial titled
"The Evils of Football,"
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264. declares the game more
brutal than cockfighting,
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265. bull fighting,
and prizefighting.
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266. The world heavyweight
boxing champion at the time,
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267. John L. Sullivan, says, quote,
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268. "Football, there's
murder in that game."
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269. Imagine how brutal it must be
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270. for a guy who punches people
in the head for a living
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271. to think that sport
is too dangerous.
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272. At one point,
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273. The Chicago Tribune
publishes a headline,
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274. "Football Year's Death Harvest,"
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275. and in that article,
they list 19 kids
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276. who've been killed playing
football that year.
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277. We're talking
roughly three decades
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278. past the culmination
of the Civil War,
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279. and here were young men going
to die not on a battlefield,
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280. but on a football field.
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281. So at this point in the game,
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282. editorials are calling
for the sport of football
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283. to be abolished.
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284. So think about that.
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285. Decades before the
NFL comes together,
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286. football could be
banned in America.
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287. We wouldn't have the Super Bowl,
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288. we wouldn't have the
Playoffs, none of it.
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289. It could be erased from history.
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290. It actually takes
President Teddy Roosevelt
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291. to save the game.
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292. There's 18, 19-year-olds
losing their lives,
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293. and you have to have
the president say,
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294. "We have to clean this game up.
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295. We have to get a
hold of this game
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296. or it's gonna have to go away."
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297. He invites all the
heads of every school
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298. to Washington, D.C. and says,
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299. "You gotta clean up the rules
and get better equipment."
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300. And of all people, it's
the Rough Rider himself,
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301. Teddy Roosevelt, who finds
ways to modify this sport,
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302. so that young men could play
the game, enjoy the game,
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303. and still go home
at the end of it.
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304. The dangers in football
have never been in doubt,
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305. but America's pastime, baseball,
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306. is known as a kinder
gentleman's game.
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307. But it wasn't always that way.
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308. In its early days, baseball
isn't just aggressive,
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309. it's downright dangerous.
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310. Everything was
done bare-handed.
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311. Balls would be coming at
you at enormous speed,
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312. and you were expected to
either catch, deflect,
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313. or bat away the ball
with your bare hands.
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314. Even in the
latter half of the 1800s
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315. when we had
professional baseball,
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316. if someone wanted to wear
a protective piece of gear,
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317. you'd be laughed at.
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318. People in the
stand would razz them
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319. and say they were
cowardly and unmanly,
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320. but they actually
needed protection.
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321. These guys were
just getting murdered
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322. by these line drives.
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323. They would have bruises,
broken fingers, broken hands.
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324. The fielders aren't
the only ones in danger
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325. in old-time baseball.
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326. The original rules have a
bit of dodgeball written in.
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327. You could throw someone out
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328. by actually hitting them
with the baseball itself.
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329. Now, this would be
considered assault.
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330. Back then, no, that was
just part of the game.
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331. They called it
soaking or plugging,
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332. wherein you could hit
the opposing player
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333. before they reached base safe.
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334. Imagine getting, you know,
banged in the head by a ball.
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335. You're gonna see
blood on the field.
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336. It had to look pretty
rough as the day went on.
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337. Right now, if you throw
a pitch near somebody,
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338. it ends up in a fight.
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339. I can't imagine in today's
game how many ambulances,
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340. how many fights there would be.
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341. By 1845,
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342. soaking is eliminated
from the game,
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343. though not everyone
loves the rule change.
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344. Fans aren't all
happy about this.
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345. Some players aren't either.
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346. They think that it takes
away from the manliness
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347. or the rough-and-tumble
nature of the sport,
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348. But fans
don't need to worry.
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349. With this rule change, something
lost is something gained.
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350. Because you can no longer
suffer the possibility
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351. of being hit with a ball,
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352. the type of ball that's used
moves to a much harder ball,
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353. which is the hard ball
that we now know today.
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354. As balls become
more tightly wound,
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355. the velocities
imbued in these balls
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356. create legit danger
to the catcher.
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357. Originally, catchers
defended behind the plate
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358. without padding, without
gloves, without masks.
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359. They're suffering broken
fingers, broken fingernails,
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360. bruises all over their hands.
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361. They would be hit kind
of all over their bodies.
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362. If catchers are wearing
any kind of padding,
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363. they're using things like
sponges, or raw meat, or hay
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364. to kind of protect themselves
from being hit with the ball.
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365. In 1870, a catcher
named Doug Allison
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366. cites he's had enough of it.
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367. He is sick of the injuries he
has incurred behind the plate.
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368. So Allison takes to the
field for the first time
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369. with the first glove,
a buckskin mitten,
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370. to protect his hand while
he's behind the plate.
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371. Allison's so-called glove
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372. looks less like a piece
of sporting equipment
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373. and more like something you
might wear to go sledding.
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374. And it gets an interesting
nickname around the league,
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375. the sissy mitten.
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376. So brutal and
relentless are the taunts.
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377. Rather than continue to
utilize his sissy mitten,
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378. Doug Allison continues
the season without it.
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379. Baseball continues
to be played without gloves
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380. until one man takes
a stand In 1877.
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381. Ultimately, it
took Albert Spalding,
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382. one of the best pitchers
to ever do it, to say,
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383. "No, I'm gonna protect my hand."
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384. And because he was
a hero of the game,
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385. a lights out pitcher for
the Chicago White Stockings,
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386. no one says anything.
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387. No one's gonna mock the king.
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388. He was the guy who made
it cool for everyone else.
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389. Like, "If Spalding's
gonna wear a mitt,
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390. well then, I'll
wear a mitt, too."
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391. Over the next decade,
gloves become commonplace,
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392. and the equipment in
the game keeps evolving,
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393. except for one position
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394. that still has no
protection whatsoever.
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395. Balls got harder, balls got
tighter, pitchers got faster.
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396. So catchers are starting
to develop mitts, pads,
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397. and face masks,
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398. but the batter is
developing nothing.
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399. And in August of 1920,
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400. the Yankees are playing
Cleveland at the polo grounds.
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401. And shortstop Ray
Chapman comes to bat
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402. against Yankees
pitcher Carl Mays.
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403. Mays hurls a
spitball at Chapman.
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404. It hits him square in the head.
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405. People watching
thought it hit his bat.
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406. So much so that the
pitcher fielded the ball
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407. and threw it to first base.
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408. While Ray Chapman laid there
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409. with blood coming
out of his ears,
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410. and the next day, he dies in
the hospital at 29 years old.
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411. Unfortunately,
after Ray Chapman dies,
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412. we don't see players wearing
any kind of protective headgear
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413. for many, many years.
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414. Consider this; players start
wearing cups in about 1904,
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415. yet helmets don't find their
way into the game until 1940.
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416. Says a lot about the
priorities of men.
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417. Helmets themselves
were not mandated
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418. by Major League
Baseball until 1971,
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419. which is crazy to think about.
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420. Once helmets were a must,
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421. baseball's wilder days
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422. were permanently taken
out of the rotation.
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423. Americans have a long
history with extreme sports,
Copy !req
424. testing boundaries and pushing
our bodies to the limit.
Copy !req
425. But long before
snowboarding, kite surfing,
Copy !req
426. or mountain biking,
Copy !req
427. one of the most hardcore sports
around was extreme walking.
Copy !req
428. In the 19th century,
Copy !req
429. competitive walking
takes off in America,
Copy !req
430. and it's pretty much
exactly what it sounds like.
Copy !req
431. It's people walking for
a set amount of time
Copy !req
432. over a set distance.
Copy !req
433. These are obviously
not casual strolls.
Copy !req
434. The challenges could
be something like
Copy !req
435. walking 1,000 miles
in 1,000 hours,
Copy !req
436. or walking 100 miles in
the course of 24 hours.
Copy !req
437. It's a test not
only of endurance, but speed.
Copy !req
438. And only the hardiest hoofers
Copy !req
439. will make punishing journey
from start to finish.
Copy !req
440. The events are
drawing large audiences.
Copy !req
441. Watching people walk
Copy !req
442. becomes America's
favorite spectator sport.
Copy !req
443. Even celebrities attend.
Copy !req
444. Future President
Chester Arthur is there.
Copy !req
445. Famous circus
performer, Tom Thumb.
Copy !req
446. This is the place to be
seen, like prize fights today.
Copy !req
447. Watching competitive walking
Copy !req
448. sounds like torture in itself,
but not as much torture
Copy !req
449. as these competitors
put their bodies through
Copy !req
450. to walk days and days at a time.
Copy !req
451. These races are insane
and they're very intense.
Copy !req
452. You're walking for hours
on end, days on end,
Copy !req
453. you're getting very
minimal breaks.
Copy !req
454. There's something called
the heel-to-toe rule,
Copy !req
455. where one foot can't
fully come off the ground
Copy !req
456. unless the other foot
is on the ground.
Copy !req
457. The rules are,
at no time can your feet
Copy !req
458. leave the pavement.
Copy !req
459. Judges are gonna sit and watch
so that you never get to stop.
Copy !req
460. Just imagine how bad
this could have been.
Copy !req
461. Would we have seen people
actually fall out and die
Copy !req
462. in the middle of competition?
Copy !req
463. They're pushing
themselves to win,
Copy !req
464. and stopping is
something they can't do,
Copy !req
465. so they just keep
going and going.
Copy !req
466. You're walking for
literally six days.
Copy !req
467. I feel like this is the
first version of "Survivor,"
Copy !req
468. the mindset that somebody
would have to have.
Copy !req
469. When you get to that fifth
day and your leg is cramping,
Copy !req
470. your foot is flaring up,
Copy !req
471. everything is going
on within your body,
Copy !req
472. that's too hard for me.
Copy !req
473. That's why drag
racing is my thing.
Copy !req
474. Five seconds, let's
roll, we are out of here.
Copy !req
475. Now, at the time,
trainers thought,
Copy !req
476. "What could I give my walker
to really give them an edge
Copy !req
477. to kind of lift
their spirits up?"
Copy !req
478. And the beverage that
they reached for the most
Copy !req
479. was champagne.
Copy !req
480. But now, you've got a
bunch of half-drunk walkers
Copy !req
481. trying to go faster
than the next one.
Copy !req
482. I mean, what a brilliant idea.
Copy !req
483. Champagne, instead of like
your normal sports drink.
Copy !req
484. The demand
from spectators
Copy !req
485. leads to the sport being moved
indoors for six-day races,
Copy !req
486. just in time for
its first scandal.
Copy !req
487. The first official
six-day race
Copy !req
488. is held in March of
1875 in New York City
Copy !req
489. and was actually won by
Edward Payson Weston.
Copy !req
490. He would find himself
mired in some controversy
Copy !req
491. a few years later
Copy !req
492. when it was found that he
was chewing coca leaves,
Copy !req
493. which, obviously, is the leaf
that we derive cocaine from.
Copy !req
494. And he is obviously getting
a little bit of extra energy
Copy !req
495. for these walks.
Copy !req
496. To think this has kinda
always been our nature, right?
Copy !req
497. Whatever it takes to win,
Copy !req
498. there is always those athletes
Copy !req
499. that are willing to
push those boundaries.
Copy !req
500. Despite its popularity,
Copy !req
501. the sports heyday
were short-lived
Copy !req
502. because something even
more exciting came along
Copy !req
503. on two wheels.
Copy !req
504. Bicycles come on to the scene,
Copy !req
505. the increased speed and
the drama of crashes,
Copy !req
506. and even multi-bike pileups,
Copy !req
507. that's what's drawing
the crowds in now.
Copy !req
508. The infrastructure
already exists,
Copy !req
509. the tracks and the
arenas and everything.
Copy !req
510. So, six-day indoor bicycle
racing becomes the new sport.
Copy !req
511. The events operate under
the same formula as walking,
Copy !req
512. people going around in circles
endlessly for six whole days.
Copy !req
513. These races are
grueling events.
Copy !req
514. If you think about how
difficult the Tour de France is,
Copy !req
515. they get breaks every day.
Copy !req
516. These riders have to go for
as long as they possibly can,
Copy !req
517. as far as they possibly
can over six days.
Copy !req
518. After one day of no rest,
you're not quite yourself.
Copy !req
519. Two days, three days,
and now, add to that,
Copy !req
520. you are physically
exerting yourself
Copy !req
521. at the highest level possible.
Copy !req
522. This is a mental
game, for sure.
Copy !req
523. The mental wear and tear
Copy !req
524. that comes from that
endurance factor is extreme.
Copy !req
525. Now, these riders are not
on the track by themselves.
Copy !req
526. They employ people
who are called seconds
Copy !req
527. who act like corner men
Copy !req
528. who are giving them
encouragement and motivation,
Copy !req
529. and screaming them along.
Copy !req
530. Like, in a boxing match,
Copy !req
531. they're there to
speak life into them.
Copy !req
532. Like, "You can do this,
you can keep going,
Copy !req
533. you can push further
than you think."
Copy !req
534. And they also give them
stimulants and other substances
Copy !req
535. to keep them awake and
pedaling along the way.
Copy !req
536. So these guys are hauling
ass, flying for days at a time,
Copy !req
537. while doped up trying
to sort of keep going.
Copy !req
538. It's kind of like the
bicycle baton death march.
Copy !req
539. Despite
the popularity,
Copy !req
540. it isn't lost on everyone,
Copy !req
541. but the riders are pushing
themselves to the edge.
Copy !req
542. In 1897, The New York Times
coverage of a six-day race
Copy !req
543. compares it to torture,
Copy !req
544. and says it is not
sport, it is brutality.
Copy !req
545. So the next year,
Copy !req
546. the state governments
of Illinois and New York
Copy !req
547. prohibit cyclists from being
on the bike more than 12 hours
Copy !req
548. in a 24-hour period.
Copy !req
549. Somehow, they rationalized
that keeping cyclists on a bike
Copy !req
550. for half a day is
somehow more humane.
Copy !req
551. Go figure.
Copy !req
552. Promoters started
trying to brainstorm
Copy !req
553. about how could we keep
the race at 24 hours.
Copy !req
554. So they said, "What
if we made the seconds
Copy !req
555. eligible to race also?"
Copy !req
556. And it works.
Copy !req
557. The return of an
old familiar sporting event,
Copy !req
558. the six-day bicycle race.
Copy !req
559. I mean, speeds increased,
Copy !req
560. distance increased,
the crowds increased,
Copy !req
561. which means the
money is increased
Copy !req
562. for the whole operation.
Copy !req
563. Five more days,
Copy !req
564. and the first man home becomes
one of the instant rich.
Copy !req
565. Famously, in 1920,
Copy !req
566. an Australian rider by
the name of Alf Goullet
Copy !req
567. makes $20,000.
Copy !req
568. Now, that may not
sound like a lot,
Copy !req
569. but in today's money, that's
the equivalent of $300,000.
Copy !req
570. That's more than Babe Ruth made,
Copy !req
571. and he knocked in 54 dingers
Copy !req
572. for the New York
Yankees that year.
Copy !req
573. These guys were true
celebrities and true superstars.
Copy !req
574. But just
as endurance cycling
Copy !req
575. moves competitive walking
off the major tracks,
Copy !req
576. a new technology
Copy !req
577. puts the brakes on bike
racing's popularity.
Copy !req
578. By the mid-'30s,
automobile racing was faster,
Copy !req
579. it was more dangerous,
it was more thrilling.
Copy !req
580. As the audience dwindled,
Copy !req
581. so did the heyday of
the brutal bike race.
Copy !req
582. Americans love to compete.
Copy !req
583. So when the Olympic Games were
revived in Greece in 1896,
Copy !req
584. the United States was there,
Copy !req
585. winning more gold medals
than any other country.
Copy !req
586. Four years later,
Copy !req
587. Americans headed to
France for the next games,
Copy !req
588. where a dozen
sports were added,
Copy !req
589. but one of them was created
with an ulterior motive.
Copy !req
590. So, in the 1900
Paris Olympics,
Copy !req
591. there's a new sport
introduced into the games.
Copy !req
592. It's called pigeon shooting.
Copy !req
593. Usually, when you
hear pigeon shooting,
Copy !req
594. you imagine clay pigeons.
Copy !req
595. That's that little orange
painted, upside down saucer
Copy !req
596. that can be released by a device
so you can shoot them in midair.
Copy !req
597. But we're talking about
real, live pigeons.
Copy !req
598. Now, how did this come about?
Copy !req
599. Well, Paris, at that time,
had a histoplasmosis problem.
Copy !req
600. This was a bird-borne disease,
Copy !req
601. and so the Parisians realized,
Copy !req
602. we could kill two
birds with one stone:
Copy !req
603. diminish the population
of pigeons in Paris
Copy !req
604. and also to create
this fun new game.
Copy !req
605. Here's how it works.
Copy !req
606. They release six pigeons
90 feet from the shooter.
Copy !req
607. Once a shooter misses two
birds, they're eliminated.
Copy !req
608. The person who wins, of course,
Copy !req
609. is the person who
kills the most birds.
Copy !req
610. That gets you a gold medal.
Copy !req
611. So apparently, anticipation
had been building for this
Copy !req
612. because on the first day,
Copy !req
613. 166 people showed up to
participate in the sport.
Copy !req
614. It really shows how slapdash
Copy !req
615. those early modern Olympics were
Copy !req
616. that it wasn't this like
perfectly-organized,
Copy !req
617. corporate-funded event,
Copy !req
618. and Olympic athletes were
not the global celebrities
Copy !req
619. that they are today.
Copy !req
620. And it turns out to
be a really messy event.
Copy !req
621. It literally is a bloody mess.
Copy !req
622. You can imagine
a group of people
Copy !req
623. just massacring
a bunch of birds.
Copy !req
624. There's blood, there's feathers,
Copy !req
625. there's everything going on.
Copy !req
626. The Gold Medal goes
to Leon de Lunden of Belgium,
Copy !req
627. who shoots 21 pigeons.
Copy !req
628. By the end of the competition,
nearly 300 birds are dead
Copy !req
629. and it has made a
mess of the field.
Copy !req
630. The event ended up being
too gory for the audience,
Copy !req
631. for the organizers.
Copy !req
632. Nobody enjoyed it, and so
they never did it again.
Copy !req
633. Pigeon shooting
Copy !req
634. is the first and only
time in Olympic history
Copy !req
635. that animals are intentionally
injured or killed.
Copy !req
636. It ends up being such a
black mark in Olympic history
Copy !req
637. that their archives
barely even mention it.
Copy !req
638. Pigeons are hardly
the only birds
Copy !req
639. that we've ever used for sport,
Copy !req
640. including the birds
that were caught up
Copy !req
641. in one popular, even
beloved, competition
Copy !req
642. that would be
unimaginable today.
Copy !req
643. It's called goose pulling
and it's pure blood sport.
Copy !req
644. Goose pulling becomes
popular in the United States
Copy !req
645. in the late 1700s, early
1800s, out on the frontier,
Copy !req
646. but it goes all the way
back to 12th-century Spain.
Copy !req
647. So, look, it goes like this.
Copy !req
648. A goose is hung by its feet
from a pole above a road.
Copy !req
649. And making this
more complicated,
Copy !req
650. the goose's head
has been greased up,
Copy !req
651. making it hard to grab hold of.
Copy !req
652. It's flapping its wings,
it's shaking all about.
Copy !req
653. And then a cowboy's
gonna hop on a horse
Copy !req
654. and go full throttle,
Copy !req
655. and try to see if he can
rip the goose's head off.
Copy !req
656. Obviously, it's not easy
to pull the head off a goose
Copy !req
657. that's been greased up
Copy !req
658. while you're riding on
a horse at full gallop.
Copy !req
659. So typically, you're taking
multiple attempts to do this.
Copy !req
660. Other riders are trying the
same thing with the same goose.
Copy !req
661. It just sounds like, "We
had nothing else to do,
Copy !req
662. and I wasn't very good at
figuring out another game.
Copy !req
663. So we're gonna try and see
Copy !req
664. if we can rip the
head off of a bird."
Copy !req
665. The person that yanks
the head off the goose,
Copy !req
666. they are kind of the hero
of the day for doing so.
Copy !req
667. They often will get the goose,
maybe a little bit of money,
Copy !req
668. maybe a little bit of alcohol,
Copy !req
669. and then they get to take
the goose home and eat it.
Copy !req
670. One would see goose pulling
at things like county fairs.
Copy !req
671. So it's running
races, it's wrestling,
Copy !req
672. and a little bit
of goose pulling.
Copy !req
673. It was seen by people on the
East Coast as a barbaric sport,
Copy !req
674. sort of suggested these
people were barbarians.
Copy !req
675. Goose pulling was made illegal
Copy !req
676. in the United States in 1920,
Copy !req
677. but it's still practiced
in parts of Europe today.
Copy !req
678. Well, kind of.
Copy !req
679. The live goose is now replaced
by an already dead one
Copy !req
680. or a fake goose.
Copy !req
681. How exciting is ice
hockey, with players
Copy !req
682. slamming into each other
at 20 miles per hour
Copy !req
683. and pucks flying at
five times that speed?
Copy !req
684. It's wild to think
Copy !req
685. how little protection there
was in the early days.
Copy !req
686. The first organized
hockey games
Copy !req
687. take place in Montreal in 1875.
Copy !req
688. The players wear football
pants, knee-high socks,
Copy !req
689. wool turtlenecks, and
no protective gear.
Copy !req
690. No helmets, nothing
on their legs.
Copy !req
691. The purpose of anything
that they're wearing
Copy !req
692. is to keep them warm
more than anything else.
Copy !req
693. By the mid-1880s,
Copy !req
694. players begin wearing
homemade shin guards
Copy !req
695. constructed of strips of
leather reinforced with wood.
Copy !req
696. In hockey,
Copy !req
697. goalies have the most
dangerous position.
Copy !req
698. They defend shots
Copy !req
699. that often reach speeds of
80 to 100 miles per hour.
Copy !req
700. And for decades, masks
are non-existent.
Copy !req
701. Their faces kind of wore
the scars of the game:
Copy !req
702. cuts, missing teeth.
Copy !req
703. There's a goalie by the
name of Terry Sawchuk,
Copy !req
704. and that man, he is a tough SOB.
Copy !req
705. He picks up more than
400 stitches to his face,
Copy !req
706. including three that are
to his right eyeball.
Copy !req
707. And then there's
Montreal Canadiens goalie,
Copy !req
708. Jacques Plante, who,
in November of 1959,
Copy !req
709. takes a puck to the face.
Copy !req
710. And he decides he's not
gonna take it anymore.
Copy !req
711. He said, "I'm done
with this. This is it.
Copy !req
712. How many times I've been hit
in the face with a puck?"
Copy !req
713. They actually stitch
him up on the ice,
Copy !req
714. which sounds crazy, but
was normal for back then.
Copy !req
715. So after the doctors
finished tending to him,
Copy !req
716. he goes to the locker
room and he grabs a mask.
Copy !req
717. Now, this mask is very
primitive for the time,
Copy !req
718. and it's actually kind of
grotesque, but he's had enough.
Copy !req
719. He gets back on the
ice and his coach says,
Copy !req
720. "You can't wear that, you're
making us look soft.
Copy !req
721. You're supposed to
be the tough guy."
Copy !req
722. But at the time,
Copy !req
723. there were no backup
goaltenders in the NHL.
Copy !req
724. So he says, "Hey, I'm
not going back out there
Copy !req
725. if you don't let
me wear this mask."
Copy !req
726. So the coach says, "He's
the only goalie I got.
Copy !req
727. We've gotta let him play."
Copy !req
728. So he goes back out
Copy !req
729. and he becomes the first
goalie to ever wear a mask.
Copy !req
730. Even though goalies
start wearing protection,
Copy !req
731. the rest of the players
aren't interested.
Copy !req
732. The players resist helmets
Copy !req
733. simply because it's not a
macho masculine thing to do.
Copy !req
734. The only reason that hockey
players start to wear a helmet
Copy !req
735. is because of one
really nasty incident.
Copy !req
736. During the 1933 season,
Copy !req
737. a game between the Bruins
and the Maple Leafs
Copy !req
738. gets particularly violent.
Copy !req
739. And another player
was thrown flat on his face!
Copy !req
740. Bruin's defenseman,
Eddie Shore, gets checked,
Copy !req
741. and in retaliation,
Copy !req
742. he immediately charges toward
Leaf's player Ace Bailey.
Copy !req
743. Shore uses his stick
Copy !req
744. to flip him up in the
air like a ragdoll.
Copy !req
745. They're
mixing it up,
Copy !req
746. and now they're going
down into a heap!
Copy !req
747. Bailey lands on the ice,
boom, square on his head.
Copy !req
748. Bailey is
knocked out cold.
Copy !req
749. When he finally comes to, Shore
tries to apologize to him.
Copy !req
750. Bailey's fine with it, saying,
"It's all part of the game,"
Copy !req
751. before blacking out again.
Copy !req
752. Bailey is rushed
to the hospital.
Copy !req
753. He has a significant
skull fracture
Copy !req
754. and a massive,
massive brain injury.
Copy !req
755. What a fight!
Copy !req
756. They even had to
call in the police.
Copy !req
757. The next day, Boston's
homicide squad informed Shore
Copy !req
758. that if Bailey
doesn't pull through,
Copy !req
759. he will be arrested and
charged with manslaughter.
Copy !req
760. Bailey comes out of
his coma 10 days later,
Copy !req
761. but he never plays again.
Copy !req
762. Shore, one of the
toughest guys in the game,
Copy !req
763. he's convinced
from this incident
Copy !req
764. to wear a helmet for
the rest of his career.
Copy !req
765. Despite that incident,
Copy !req
766. it takes until 1979 for the NHL
Copy !req
767. to make helmets mandatory
for all the players,
Copy !req
768. and fighting remains a vital
part of the game for decades.
Copy !req
769. If you fight in other sports,
Copy !req
770. you're probably kicked
out of the game.
Copy !req
771. If you're fighting in real
life, you might be arrested.
Copy !req
772. But in hockey,
Copy !req
773. it's accepted, maybe
sometimes encouraged.
Copy !req
774. These
boys are just settling
Copy !req
775. a little good-natured argument.
Copy !req
776. Hockey is unique among
professional sports
Copy !req
777. because it's the only one
Copy !req
778. where two, four, six
players can get in a brawl
Copy !req
779. and they're all allowed
to stay in the game.
Copy !req
780. At the time,
Copy !req
781. hockey is far more
brutal than it is today.
Copy !req
782. The reason that
fighting exists
Copy !req
783. is because the sheer
momentum and the sheer speed
Copy !req
784. at which these guys
are moving on the ice
Copy !req
785. creates contact that is, in
itself, inherently dangerous.
Copy !req
786. And because of that, it does
create heightened emotions.
Copy !req
787. We forget that these athletes,
Copy !req
788. this is how they put food
on the table for themselves.
Copy !req
789. So sometimes,
Copy !req
790. those emotions are gonna
roll over into a fight.
Copy !req
791. Fighting begins
declining significantly
Copy !req
792. starting in 2008,
Copy !req
793. with rule changes that
emphasize skill and speed.
Copy !req
794. Each successive generation
Copy !req
795. gets less and less
tolerant of fighting.
Copy !req
796. People came to appreciate
a brand of hockey
Copy !req
797. that wasn't based upon
fighting and brutality,
Copy !req
798. but on speed and finesse.
Copy !req
799. Scores!
Copy !req
800. Rodney Dangerfield once
joked that he went to a fight
Copy !req
801. and a hockey game broke out.
Copy !req
802. An apt description, but
fans ate up that old time,
Copy !req
803. hard knocks hockey.
Copy !req
804. The roar of the engines, the
smell of the burning rubber.
Copy !req
805. Americans love a good car race,
Copy !req
806. and our need for speed
didn't take long at all.
Copy !req
807. In the 1880s, the arrival
of the first automobile
Copy !req
808. started our competitive
juices immediately.
Copy !req
809. It's hard to imagine
the newness of a car.
Copy !req
810. They come out of nowhere,
Copy !req
811. and people want to see them.
Copy !req
812. Almost as soon as we have
cars, we have car races.
Copy !req
813. Back in the day,
it was very lawless.
Copy !req
814. You did not have sanctioning
bodies, you did not have rules.
Copy !req
815. By 1900, cars
are able to reach a speed
Copy !req
816. up to 70 miles an hour,
Copy !req
817. and that's when the
craziness of auto racing
Copy !req
818. really takes off.
Copy !req
819. This is still new
technology that now,
Copy !req
820. people are pushing
to the limits.
Copy !req
821. Auto racing becomes
extremely dangerous.
Copy !req
822. So we're talking cars
Copy !req
823. weighing about 1,500 pounds.
Copy !req
824. Keep in mind, there's
no safety regulations.
Copy !req
825. There's no seat belts.
Copy !req
826. There's definitely no helmet.
Copy !req
827. So a lot of times
during the races,
Copy !req
828. these drivers were
just getting thrown out
Copy !req
829. if they didn't catch
on fire beforehand.
Copy !req
830. By the 1920s, the
sport becomes so popular,
Copy !req
831. promoters roll out
a new invention,
Copy !req
832. a type of racetrack
called the motordrome.
Copy !req
833. At
Altoona, Pennsylvania,
Copy !req
834. they got rid of the dust
Copy !req
835. by building a wondrous
wooden saucer,
Copy !req
836. which became more
oil-soaked and slippery.
Copy !req
837. Essentially, these were
hastily-constructed cheap tracks
Copy !req
838. that were made of planking,
Copy !req
839. but to make it the
spectacle more exciting,
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840. they began making banked tracks.
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841. It was pretty cool 'cause
you could see all the action
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842. that would be sort of contained
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843. and the track could travel,
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844. but it was still
just as dangerous
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845. as any racing was before it.
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846. Because the wooden
planks of a board track
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847. can be disassembled
and reassembled,
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848. it moves around frequently
to different venues,
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849. which also makes
it very unstable.
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850. You have relatively
inexperienced drivers
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851. on relatively unproven
pieces of machinery,
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852. hurdling around a
hastily-made track that would
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853. sometimes disintegrate
while driving on it.
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854. And if it sounds scary,
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855. it's because it was
freaking terrifying.
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856. So you also have to worry
about the actual track,
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857. the boards coming up
and disintegrating
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858. either by accidents
or just by themselves.
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859. So suddenly, you've
got shards of wood
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860. popping in your radiator
or maybe in your shoulder.
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861. When you're there
as a spectator,
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862. you'll have to keep
your head on a swivel
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863. of whether or not you're gonna
catch a stake in the throat
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864. shooting off this racetrack.
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865. These races are
pure pandemonium.
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866. And in fact, as the speed
and danger increase,
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867. fans started referring to the
board tracks as murder-dromes.
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868. Famously, crashes would claim
multiple vehicles at a time,
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869. and it wasn't
uncommon for a driver
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870. to be ejected out of the car
20, 30 feet into the crowd,
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871. or even worse,
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872. run over by his own
car or another vehicle
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873. right there on the track.
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874. To get some context
to the danger,
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875. in the 1920s,
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876. four drivers who
had won the Indy 500
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877. were killed racing
on board tracks.
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878. These risks
make board track racing
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879. a huge draw,
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880. even more popular than races
like the Indianapolis 500.
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881. Because of how
dangerous the sport was,
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882. board track racing
was a phenomenon.
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883. Famously, one year in Chicago,
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884. 80,000 people show up to
see a board track race
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885. when only 60,000 had showed up
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886. to the Indianapolis
500 the same year.
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887. You would assume
that safety concerns
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888. is really what ultimately
ended board track racing.
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889. But that's not it,
nobody cared about that.
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890. The Great Depression sunk in,
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891. and then suddenly it
just wasn't feasible
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892. to take these tracks
apart and move them around
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893. and try to have whole
races with them.
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894. I am glad that I was
not alive in that era
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895. because I would not step foot
on a board track or racetrack.
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896. It's insanity, honestly.
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897. Looking back at our
original extreme sports,
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898. whether it was playing
golf from an airplane,
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899. or barehanded baseball,
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900. or playing polo
in speeding cars,
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901. we didn't always
play by the rules,
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902. and sometimes there
were no rules.
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903. And that's what made
our hazardous history
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904. a full contact sport.
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