This spud’s for you

Williamsport Bills catcher and career .210 hitter Dave Bresnahan turns his spuddering – er, sputtering – minor league career into folklore 37 years ago today as he picks off Reading Phillies baserunner Rick Lundblade at third base with a potato.

The play comes during the first game of a Class AA Eastern League doubleheader at Williamsport’s Bowman Field.

Seems that Bresnahan conceals a well-crafted, shaved potato in his backup catcher’s mitt and waits for just the right moment for his prank – in this case, a two-out, fifth-inning pickoff attempt of Lundblade at third base.

Dave Bresnahan with his "baseball"

Prior to the pickoff, Bresnahan asks plate umpire Scott Potter for time to replace what Bresnahan claims is faulty webbing in his mitt and then replaces it with the backup one that is concealing the potato.

Now, as he eyes Lundblade drifting off third base, Bresnahan purposely calls for a low-and-away slider, knowing the batter would not swing.

Before the pitch arrives, Bresnahan moves the potato from his new mitt to his right hand and waits to catch the ball.

He then deliberately fires the spud over the head of third baseman Rob Swain – Bresnahan’s roommate who also is in on the gag – and into left field.

Bresnahan then waits for a fooled Lundblade to race home to an awaiting tag with the real ball.

Bresnahan believes Potter simply would send Lundblade back to third base and play would continue.

“I thought it would be a do-over,” Bresnahan later says.

Instead, an unamused Potter rules Lundblade safe and Williamsport manager Orlando Gomez, equally unamused, promptly removes Bresnahan from the game and fines him $50.

Lundblade’s run gives Reading a 2-0 lead in a game Williamsport eventually rallies to win 4-3.

No matter.

After the game, the Cleveland Indians release Bresnahan – the grand-nephew of Hall of Fame catcher Roger Bresnahan – from their last-place Class AA affiliate.

Bresnahan never again plays pro ball.

The retired number

That, however, does not deter the Chicago Tribune from naming the 25-year-old Bresnahan as its 1987 Person of the Year.

Nor does it keep the Williamsport Bills from retiring Bresnahan's jersey No. 59 less than a year later.

The iconoclastic Bresnahan eventually moves to suburban Phoenix and becomes a successful stockbroker.

“Lou Gehrig had to play in 2,130 consecutive games and hit .340 for his number to be retired,” Bresnahan later says. “All I had to do was bat .140 and throw a potato.”