{"id":82353,"date":"2019-04-01T18:01:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T18:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"\/rcntv\/?p=82353"},"modified":"2023-04-13T21:15:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T21:15:45","slug":"sidd-finch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sidd-finch\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cSidd\u201d Finch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am writing this on April 1st<\/sup> which, as you know, happens to be April Fool\u2019s Day.\u00a0 I have had some fun on this day in the past.\u00a0 While teaching George Orwell\u2019s 1984<\/em> and trying to convince my students that \u201ctruth is whatever you believe to be true\u201d, I invented a student.\u00a0 I faked his registration at school, gave him a personality, a visual, and, obviously, a name.\u00a0 I had my class talk about this \u201cperson\u201d to other students just to spread the word in order to prove my lesson.\u00a0 It did not take long for curiosity to take over.<\/p>\n

Girls would stand around outside my class room just to get a glimpse of this young man, who many had said was quite good-looking.\u00a0 Of course, I had to create excuses for why he was not in my class.\u00a0 I would say he was called to the office, had a doctor\u2019s appointment, etc.\u00a0 I even went so far as to get him placed on the absentee list.<\/p>\n

My literature class could not believe the excitement generated by this non-existent person.\u00a0 He became real to so many that my point about \u201ctruth\u201d became self-evident.\u00a0 In fact, I had to curtail the experiment when someone had set up a blind date with a girl.\u00a0 Not wanting to embarrass anyone, I exposed the ruse.<\/p>\n

One April Fool\u2019s Day fell on a Monday and I appeared as a guest on WZZO<\/a> as I always did every Monday morning in the Bearman and Keith\u2019s studio.\u00a0 I tried to bring interesting sports stories to their morning show every Monday.\u00a0 So on this morning, I reported that one of the Phillies<\/a> greatest players, Mike Schmidt, had been traded right before I got to the studio.\u00a0 This was well before you could do instant fact-checking on Google<\/a>.\u00a0 Bearman and Keith and the audience bought in.\u00a0 The report generated the most interest and the most phone calls of any of my appearances.\u00a0 Fans were angry, perplexed, and bewildered.\u00a0 I had a good time with it right up until the moment I revealed the lie. The groans could be heard throughout the Valley.<\/p>\n

My escapades were minor compared to what George Plimpton did in 1985 for Sports Illustrated<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 The managing editor noticed that the magazine would hit the newsstand on April 1.\u00a0 He asked Plimpton to right about jokes in sports.\u00a0 Plimpton could not find anything he liked so he asked if he could create his own hoax.<\/p>\n

Plimpton created Hayden Siddhartha \u201cSidd\u201d Finch, a baseball pitcher for the New York Mets<\/a>.\u00a0 Plimpton hired a stand-in, Joe Berton, to play the part, invented an entire biography, posted photographs, got the Mets to go along with the story, and foisted #21 onto the national scene.<\/p>\n

Mets fans were thrilled with their newfound talent.\u00a0 Editors of other publications were angry with the Mets that they gave the story to Sports Illustrated<\/em>.\u00a0 Finch got his own locker and media flocked to get more of the story.\u00a0 A press conference was announced and, on April 2, Finch (Berton) announced his retirement.<\/p>\n

The press release read: “He’s a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent lifestyle, Sidd’s deciding about\u00a0yoga\u2014and his future in baseball.”\u00a0 The first letters each of these words spell out “Happy\u00a0April<\/a> Fool\u2019s Day\u00a0\u2013 a(h) fib”.<\/p>\n

The magazine officially announced the hoax in the April 15 issue.<\/p>\n

If you are so inclined, you can read the entire article at this site:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/2014\/10\/15\/curious-case-sidd-finch<\/a><\/p>\n

I hope you got through the day without any repercussions.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The one #1 seed in the NCAA<\/a> bracket that I thought would falter was Virginia<\/a>. And now, they are the only #1 seed going to the Final Four.\u00a0 #3 Texas Tech<\/a>, #5 Auburn<\/a>, and #2 Michigan State<\/a> will join them.\u00a0 It was reported this past weekend that the one perfect bracket left in all the various submissions (tens of millions) throughout the country faltered by picking Tennessee<\/a> over Purdue<\/a>.\u00a0 A neuropsychologist had correctly picked a record 49 straight games until the Purdue loss in overtime.\u00a0 The odds of getting 49 correct were 1 in 562,949,953,421,312.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. You may be wondering what the conferences make financially from the NCAA<\/a> in the tournament. Every conference (32 of them) earns at least $282,100.\u00a0 The more teams you advance, the more money you get.\u00a0 The SEC with Auburn<\/a> in the Final Four gets $32.1 million; the Big Ten gets $35.5 million; the ACC gets $33.8 million.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. With all the appropriate excitement about the Phillies\u2019 start to the season, did you notice the start by last year\u2019s MVP, Milwaukee\u2019s<\/a> Christian Yelich \u2013 home runs in each of the first four games. And he added a two-run double in the ninth on Sunday to give his team a 5-4 win.\u00a0 He is looking like an MVP all over again.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. Bryce Harper, who hit two home runs this past weekend as the Phillies swept three games from the Braves<\/a>, now travels to Washington<\/a> where he signed his original contract in 2010. The atmosphere there should be electric.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \n
          1. Lafayette College<\/a> baseball is celebrating its 150th<\/sup> year of intercollegiate competition this season. The Leopards have throwback uniforms which they will wear when they play Lehigh<\/a> to commemorate the anniversary on April 17 at 3:30pm.\u00a0 RCN-TV will bring you the game.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.\u00a0 I am writing this on April 1st which, as you know, happens to be April Fool\u2019s Day.\u00a0 I have had some fun on this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-mic"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cSidd\u201d Finch - 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