some of y'all might've gotten a thumbnail that looks a bit different for this video than what you're used to. youtube started finally offering A/B testing of thumbs, so for some videos/series/projects, we're going to experiment a bit to see what does or doesn't work. figured it's worth being open about. smell ya later
being open is always the right way. figure in these times good things have to be honored more. so as a german (we don't do positive reinforcement): well done, keep at it!
The Onion did a great article on this guy back in the day. Antonio Alfonseca Once Again Leads Major-League Relievers In Fingers "Antonio has been through a lot this season, including some elbow problems and a trip to the DL," manager Jack McKeon said. "But in the end, he just went out there and had a lot of fingers."
I played some games in MLB 07: The Show with the Phillies, where he was a reliever playing his last season, and unfortunately I can confirm that San Diego Studio didn't model him with six fingers. Damn shame.
Assuming that the finger is as usable and strong as the other ones, the best sport for having an extra finger has to be rock-climbing or something. You could really use the extra grip.
You would think, but look up Tommy Caldwell. One of the greatest climbers of all time and he accidentally cut his index finger off with a table saw in his prime. Went on to climb much harder stuff afterwards including the hardest route in America.
People also claimed that Mordecai Brown's injury helped him pitch; there's some thought that the stub of a fourth finger he had put a slightly different spin on the ball and that's why his curveball was so unhittable. Dude was one of the best pitchers ever. The Giants manager said maybe they needed to go out and find a pitcher with 2 fingers!
Mordecai Brown lost 2 fingers in a mechanized farm equipment accident back when there were protests against mechanized farm equipment. I don't know if he could use the stubs as like rocket engines, or if they were for spin or what, but his new hand smoked. He made it to Cooperstown.
I remember him! He was on the @Cubs. Also this was the same team to employ Mordecai "3-finger" Brown. So in combination of both players they have an average of 10 fingers!
I believe three-finger brown had like 8½ fingers, one was missing entirely but another was just missing part, and I believe the nickname wasn't counting the thumb
Polydactyly rarely results in a finger that can actually be manipulated. Usually its just an extra mass. So I imagine wouldn't be an advantage beyond maybe altering the center of mass on the hand. Also Yogi Berra coulda had 11 or 12, he won 2 pennants aas a manager!
You talk about lack of imagination in baseball nicknames - my favorite old-timey baseball nickname is "Death to Flying Things". I was today years old when I found out Dave Niehaus dusted it off in the late 2000s for Franklin Gutierrez.
My first job was as a 16 year old usher for the Cubs during his season. He was one of the only players I actually met and talked to while there (though I got to get a "hey how are ya" from Ron Santo). But I did get to meet and shake the hand of Alfonseca. And yes. The finger....it closed on the handshake
Thank you,Jon I’ve been harboring the same stupid thoughts about the correct way to throw up curveball from back when I was young and when I got old enough to understand that I was an idiot I’ve just never brought it up. You’re bringing awareness to group that very much needs it.
11:06 I'm glad NBA Live 2003 came out when it did. All of the "lizard person" conspiracies about Jason Kidd from that cover. (If you don't know, one of Jason Kidd's fingers is hidden behind one of the others in the picture on the cover so it looks like he has only four fingers on his left hand)
I remember a kid in school that also had the extra digit. It was completely useless, if anything it encumbered him sometimes. It was such a small numb and didn't even have bone growing inside of it so he couldn't control it.
Hey this is awesome- I WHOLEHEARTEDLY support the endeavors of the hosts/video voice staff and the general staff of your channel. There needs to be an easier way to access this specific show outside of patreon. To get it where it deserves to be, it deserves to be heard outside of patreon.
He had a picture in the paper when I was growing up in Jupiter and my mom showed it to me and I didn't notice. He had all fingers front and center and he was holding to baseballs.
I was born with six fingers on my left hand and would have been a fan of Alfonseca (who Bob Costas called “digitally advanced”)…but I’m a Mets fan and he beat up the Metsies when he was with Atlanta, so I could never get behind him.
Other “anatomically abnormal” former MLB players: Pete Gray (played one season during WW2 despite having no right arm) & Bert Shepard (pitched one game with a prosthetic leg… also during WW2).
Aussies are notorious for ironic nicknames for someone like Mordecai Brown where he is called Three fingers because he lost three fingers in an accident and only had two left.
Weaver in Kentucky is a big body strong guy who doesn't seem to have a lot of agility needed to make the leap to the NFL, but he's expected to go in the 7th round in 2025 at the moment, though of course that could improve.
Yogi Berra has the most rings in baseball with 10. Russell has 11, but if you count coaching wins he should have 13 as he was player coach for two of those
He also has the most World Series pitching wins as a Cub. Two of those were in relief, but the other 3 were complete game shutouts in the 1906, 1907 and 1908 World Series, which the Cubs needed as they scored only 6 runs across all 3 of those games! His record might be even better had he started more than just the final game in 1907, I suspect he was kept out because he lost the final game in 1906 giving up 7 runs before being pulled in the 2nd inning -- which he can't be entirely blamed for as this was 2 days after pitching all 9 in a 1-0 win... Notably, however, he does NOT have the Cubs record for pitching wins in a single world series as his 5 Ws were spread across 4 Series from 1906-1910. That record belongs to Orval Overall who got the other 3 Cubs wins in the 1908 Series.
11 fingers wouldn't be too weird, it's actually a dominant trait that's been almost entirely bred out of humans over the generations, but 6 digits on each hand and foot is wild
perhaps cutting at least some photogenic of the guy in game, snippet of article examples, etc? otherwise it’s similar to art history books that don’t have any images…