Mike "King" Kelly

King Kelly. Any baseball fan worth a damn has at least heard of this guy. As a kid I was enamored with this man. Some say Babe Ruth was the first "superstar", but King Kelly was the man of the late 19th century. He played so long ago!!! His father fought for the Union in the civil war. Kelly's Wikipedia is a fucking goldmine: He is also often credited with popularizing various strategies as a player such as the hit and run, the hook slide, and the catcher's practice of backing up first base. When Mike was born, he almost died of a heart failure. Kelly was now a young, good-looking man in the big city with money in his pocket. Rather than buying a house, he immediately moved into the Palmer House, the loudest, brashest, most garish and, according to its literature, "fire-proof" hotel in the world. He was rarely seen without his pet monkey on his shoulder and his Japanese valet at his side and he opened a saloon with some drinking buddies. Since then-current rules allowed for player substitution at any time, he leapt off the bench, yelled "Kelly now catching for Boston," and caught the ball for out number three. This prompted a rule change to the effect that substitutions could only be made during timeouts.[1] Kelly is also considered to have been the first man to popularize autographing, as fans pursued him on his way to the ballpark for his signature in the 1890s. Baseball games had only a single umpire at the time, and Kelly would watch the umpire to see if he was watching the play at first base or looking to see if a ball landed fair or foul. When convinced the umpire's back was turned, Kelly would immediately run across the diamond to the next base, skipping either second or third, in full view of thousands of fans. Kelly was legendary for trying to subvert the rules in many other ways. As an infielder, he would occasionally intentionally trip baserunners and drop easy fly balls to convert double plays. Playing right field one day in an extra-inning game with darkness approaching, he made an apparent spectacular grab of a line shot over his head. When the umpire called the game on account of darkness, Kelly was asked by his teammates how far that ball had traveled. "How would I know?" Kelly answered. That ball was three feet over my head." Kelly had pulled a spare ball out of his uniform and only pretended to make the catch.