Curio Cabinet / Sporty Curio

She didn't set out to be the first, and she hopes she won't be the last. Ayami Sato just became the first female baseball player to be signed with a professional men's team in Canada, and she's ready to play. Sato isn't the first female player ever to sign with a professional men's team, but she is the first in Canada. The first woman to ever play for a men's team was 16-year-old Jackie Mitchell, who signed with the Chattanooga Lookouts. Though she managed to strike out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game, her contract was made null and void by then-commissioner Kenesaw Landis, who also banned women from playing in the MLB. Like Mitchell, Sato is also a pitcher who has already made a name for herself by leading the Japanese team to the Women’s Baseball World Cup championships six times in a row. Now, after signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club of the Intercounty Baseball League, she will be on the pitcher's mound once more. With a pitch of around 80 miles-per-hour, she doesn't have the most speedy throw, but she has a trick up her sleeve—a higher-than-average spin rate that makes her pitches harder to hit. Is it adding insult to injury if a pitcher makes you dizzy before striking you out?

This sport is defined by its intense rivalries…but can’t we just forgive and forget? MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum have just announced that a number of previously ineligible players have been reinstated. It's one step closer to being inducted into the Hall of Fame for famed, deceased players Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, but it doesn't necessarily mean redemption. Both Rose and Jackson were considered some of the greatest players of their time, yet they were kept out of the hallowed Hall of Fame due to scandals. Rose was banned from playing in the MLB for life in 1989 after he was found to have gambled on the outcomes of games. Jackson was embroiled in the Black Sox scandal, where he and several other White Sox players were accused of accepting bribes to lose the 1919 World Series. There are 15 other deceased players previously made ineligible for the Hall of Fame, but Manfred and other officials have reinstated them, mostly based on the fact that they no longer "represent a threat to the integrity of the game." Some officials believe that making them ineligible during their own lifetimes is penalty enough. Of course, any player, living or dead, would still need to receive enough votes to induct them into the Hall of Fame. Only time will tell if fame will finally outshine shame.

You’ve heard of a horse of a different color, but what about horses of the same lineage? Amazingly, every single one of the 19 horses that competed in this year’s Kentucky Derby were descended from one legendary racing horse: Secretariat. Considered one of the greatest racehorses of all time, Secretariat won the 1973 Kentucky Derby with a record-setting time of 1 minute and 59.40 seconds—a record that still stands to this day. That same year, he also won what is known as the Triple Crown, an unofficial but extremely impressive feat achieved by winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes races in a single year. While it might seem impossible for so many modern horses to be related to a single former champion, it makes more sense when one considers that Secretariat sired a whopping 663 foals in his lifetime. 341 of them went on to win races, including Risen Star, the winner of the 1988 Preakness and Belmont Stakes, and this year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Sovereignty. Secretariat might be gone, but his fast-as-lightning legacy rides on.

This week, as the weather continues to warm, we're looking back on some of our favorite springtime curios from years past.
 
Would this be considered a throwback? It’s not a legacy that anybody wants to keep alive, but Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen recently echoed a memory of his team’s most celebrated pitcher, Randy Johnson, when his pitch killed a bird during a recent warm-up. Back in 2001, Johnson famously mangled a bird in mid-flight with a powerful pitch that sent a dramatic burst of feathers into the air. It was an incredibly unlikely and unlucky way for a bird to go—the left handed pitcher won 303 games throughout his 20 seasons, largely due to his incredible 100-mph pitches. No one knows why the errant bird (thought to be a mourning dove) decided to fly in front of home plate that day, but the pitch ended up being called a no-pitch by the umpire, and the game proceeded. The call was made because there is no rule regarding an animal interfering with a pitch and because the ball never reached the plate. Therefore, it never happened on paper. Johnson’s bird met its demise during a spring training game, but Gallen felled his during warm-ups before a game against the Oakland Athletics. According to witnesses, the bird was flying near home plate when it was struck by Gallen’s curveball. Afterwards, Gallen expressed sadness for the unfortunate animal, calling the incident “unfortunate.” Such a freak accident is a curveball in and of itself.

Skiing is usually a downhill sport, but this feat was up, down, and all around. This month in 2024, Swedish skier Jesper Tjäder completed the world’s first open loop rail slide. This slide is exactly what it sounds like: a loop with no top section. Tjäder first got the idea for an open loop back in 2016, after skiing the world’s first 360 degree loop rail. Opening the top of the loop would not only look striking, but Tjäder felt that it could actually make the rail easier to ski, since keeping contact with the top of the 2016 rail was one of the most difficult aspects of the run. In the following years, Tjäder helped design the open loop as he competed in the Olympics and tended to other aspects of his career. Finally, in April of 2024, Tjäder set up the open loop in Åre, Sweden, and began attempting to ski it. Those documenting his progress had no way of knowing whether completing the loop was even possible, or whether it would take days, weeks, or months for him to succeed. Amazingly, Tjäder landed the new rail in a single day, after just 41 failed attempts. 42nd time’s a charm!

Finally, a chance to don green on the green! On April 13th, Northern Irish golfer Rory Daniel McIlroy won the Masters Tournament and was awarded his green jacket, the traditional prize. It was a nail-biting win, as McIlroy faced off against British golfer Justin Rose in a sudden-death playoff. The suspense was intensified by the fact that McIlroy had been famously close to winning the Masters several times before, starting in 2011. That year, he entered the tournament’s final round with a four-stroke lead, but shot a triple-bogey on the tenth hole, followed by more bogeys that left him unable to recover. He made it to the Tournament’s top ten in 2014, finished solo-fourth in 2015, and claimed 10th place in 2016. In 2018, he ended up finishing in a tie for fifth place despite tying his then-personal-best score. In 2022, he came tantalizingly close to winning, but ended up in second place. After failing to make the top ten in 2024, McIlroy came out literally and figuratively swinging at the 2025 tournament. Though he began the tournament’s final day with a five-shot lead, it had disappeared by the 18th hole. That’s when McIlroy hit his ball just four feet from the cup, setting up a sudden-death playoff against Rose that McIlroy ultimately won. Winners are required to pass their jackets on to the next winner after a year...but maybe McIlroy should be allowed to hold on to his just a tad longer? He's earned it!

Records are meant to be broken, but that doesn’t make this any less impressive! Russian hockey player Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals just scored his 895th goal during a game against the New York Islanders, surpassing Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals. Ovechkin made the historic shot from the “Ovi spot,” or the top of the left circle from which he has scored the majority of his goals. Gretsky’s all-time record was thought to be unbreakable by many, and while Ovechkin is sure to continue racking up his record, there was something special about the game against the islanders. Gretzky set his record over the course of his career, which included 1,487 games. The Capitals’ match-up against the Islanders on Sunday just so happened to be Ovechkin’s 1,487th game. However, Gretzky still dwarfs Ovechkin when it comes to assists with 1,963. Ron Francis stands at a distant second with 1,249. Meanwhile, Gordie Howe and Jaromir Jagr are third and fourth when it comes to all-time goals, at 801 and 766 respectively. Is there room for another “Great One”?

Torpedoes away! A new baseball bat that some say resembles a torpedo or a bowling pin is getting a lot of hype after its recent debut with the New York Yankees. Over three games against the Milwaukee Brewers near the end of March, the Yankees soundly defeated their opponents with 15 home runs, and a strange new bat is receiving much of the credit. According to MLB rules, baseball bats must meet certain standards regarding their shape. Rule 3.02 states, “The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.” Well, nowhere does it state it can’t be shaped a little funny. The new bat is being called a “torpedo” for its unconventional shape, which bulges at the barrel and narrows down at the end. Aaron Leanhardt, a former staffer for the Yankees, developed the new bat to add more mass where the ball meets the wood, without changing its overall weight by much. In their first game using the new bats, the Yankees hit three home runs in the first three pitches. It’s the first time this has happened since the MLB began keeping records in 1988. Swing and a miss? It’s not looking likely!

This goal comes courtesy of the Great Lake State. The New York Sirens made hockey history during a recent Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) game, when forward Abby Roque made the league’s very first “Michigan” goal. This difficult style of goal happens when a player picks up a puck behind the net with their stick, lifts it into the air, and shoots it back into the net at a short distance. Roque is a native of (where else?) Michigan. Though the Sirens lost the match 5-2 to the Ottawa Charge, the goal still marks an important moment in women’s hockey, as Michigan goals are exceedingly difficult to pull off. In post game media, Roque was in high spirits as she explained that a Michigan goal had been, well, a goal of hers for a long time. “...it's something that I jokingly say every day when I come to the rink. I'm like, Okay, Michigan today, and I don't actually mean it, but the opportunity presented itself, so I had to try,” she said. Michiganders represent!

It’s not every day you see a stadium full of bananas. Recently, the Savannah Bananas sold out their first game in an NFL Stadium, playing for a crowd of 65,000 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. The stadium is usually the home of the Bay Buccaneers, but they were happy to turn over the spotlight for a night—it’s not every day you get to see such “bananas” antics on a baseball field, after all. The Savannah Bananas are an exhibition team, meaning that they don’t play traditional baseball, but a game that combines baseball, dancing, and acrobatics to entertain crowds. They call the game “banana ball.” Dressed in bright yellow kilts, players are often escorted onto the field by a pep band, or even carried atop banana-shaped pool floats. Players sometimes perform on stilts and participate in comedy sketches mid-game, and every game includes a choreographed dance number. As their name suggests, the Savannah Bananas got their start in Savannah, Georgia. They were the brainchild of husband and wife team Jesse and Emily Cole, who bought a Coastal Plain League team and moved it to Georgia in 2015. The team was in debt, and ticket sales stalled, at first. By 2016, the financial situation looked grim, but things changed when the public was allowed to vote on the new team’s name. When “Savannah Bananas” was chosen in a landslide, it drove home how important community involvement was, and the team’s exhibition games got more and more wacky, gaining a loyal following all the while. Fans of normal baseball needn’t worry, either—Savannah Bananas players know their way around the diamond. They’re all former standouts from college teams or former MLB draft picks, so they’ve got plenty of skill. No spotty peels in this stadium!

It pays to watch yourself in Warwickshire! That’s the English country where, in the town of Atherstone, a fairly violent game of folk football has been played every Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday in Christian tradition) for the past nine centuries. This 826th game took place this year on March 4.
 
The Atherstone Ball Game, as it’s known, is a folk or "medieval" football game, meaning that it’s nothing like either of the games that we call “football” today: American football or European soccer. The only object of the game is to grab and hold onto a heavy, leather ball as long as possible as it is kicked and thrown down the town’s main street. Whoever is holding the ball at the end of the two-hour game is the winner. This means that the final minutes of the game are usually violent as players swarm around the ball, punching and kicking each other in what resembles a crowd crush mixed with a wrestling match. Luckily, one of the game's few rules states that killing other players isn’t allowed.
 
This rowdy tradition got started in 1199, when King John oversaw a match between players from Warwickshire and Leicestershire. The king offered a bag of gold to the winners, making the high-stakes game particularly violent. Some say that the bag of gold was actually used in place of a ball, though it’s impossible to know for sure. We do know that Leicestershire won, but it’s Warwickshire that has carried on the game’s tradition. As far as history’s concerned, they’re the real winners!

Just keep jumping….and jumping…and jumping! That seems to be the motto of Swedish pole-vaulter Armand Duplantis, who recently broke his 11th world record. Duplantis first broke the men’s pole vaulting world record in February, 2020, when he jumped 6.17 meters (20.24 feet)—one centimeter higher than the previous record, which was set in 2014. After that, Duplantis broke the record by one centimeter ten more times, most recently at the All Star Pole Vault in Clermont-Ferrand, France on February 28. His newest jump was an astonishing 6.27 meters (20.57 feet). Duplantis is also a two-time Olympic gold medalist, but that’s not his most unusual achievement. This pole-vaulter is in the midst of launching a music career. In fact, his debut single, Bop, a Latin-inspired pop song, released on the same day of his latest jump. It was played in the stadium as he broke the world record for the 11th time. Talk about multi-talented!

Athletes come and go, but legends last forever. WNBA star Diana Taurasi recently announced her retirement, ending an extraordinary career that lasted a whopping 20 years. While many professional athletes end up playing for multiple teams, Taurasi spent her entire career with the Phoenix Mercury, where she built a reputation as one of the greatest WNBA players of all time. Taurasi came by her athletic prowess naturally, as her father, Mario Taurasi, was an Italian soccer player. The younger Taurasi showed an interest in basketball as a child, and by her teenage years she was already racking up accomplishments. In high school she won the prestigious Cheryl Miller Award for being the best player in Southern California before going on to help her college team at the University of Connecticut win three consecutive NCAA championships. After being drafted by the Phoenix Mercury in 2004, Taurasi did the opposite of sitting on her laurels. In fact, she began breaking records of all kinds. In 2006, she led the league in scoring and beat the previous record for points scored in a single season. That same season, she set a new WNBA record for three-pointers in a single season. In addition to professional records, Taurasi also racked up her share of gold medals, as she was a part of six gold medal Olympic Basketball teams, the most recent in 2024. That’s especially notable considering that, at age 42, Taurasi was the oldest active WNBA player in the league that year. No doubt that her legacy will last at least as long as her impressive career.

What do sports fans, aviation history buffs, and broadcasters have in common? They all love the Goodyear Blimp. The iconic lighter-than-air craft has been a fixture at many sporting events over the last century, and it’s turning 100 this year. While Goodyear is mostly known as a manufacturer of automotive tires, they’ve always been more. Named after the inventor of vulcanized rubber, Charles Goodyear, the company has been experimenting with rubber’s potential in aviation nearly since its founding. In the 1910s, the company produced airships for the U.S. military, and in 1925, introduced the first Goodyear Blimp. The Goodyear Blimp was called the Pilgrim, and was licensed for advertisements. However, starting in the 1950s, the Goodyear Blimp was featured during the Rose Bowl, and it became inextricably tied to sports. The Blimp wasn’t just there for decoration, but to provide aerial coverage for the event—and not just for novelty’s sake. The blimp actually has a few key advantages over planes or helicopters when it comes to sports coverage. First of all, even when going full-throttle at 73 miles per hour, the blimp provides a gentle ride, making for shake-free camera shots. Unlike a plane, it can also stay put in one place, and unlike a helicopter, it uses very little fuel and allows for many more passengers. Although drones and other technological advancements have taken the blimp’s place in recent years, the Goodyear Blimp offers something those newfangled drones just don’t: it’s a blimp. Its large, ostentatious presence combined with its historical legacy gets people excited in a way that tiny drones just can’t. That, along with its continued practical application, means that the blimp might stick around for a while yet. As of now, the blimp still flies at sporting events like the Indianapolis 500 and cultural events like the Academy Awards. The latter makes perfect sense, given the blimp’s lasting star power.

A certain football team suffered a devastating loss recently, denying them the bragging rights to a “three-peat.” Did you know, however, that the term is actually trademarked? Miami Heat president Pat Riley trademarked the phrase in 1989, when he was the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Riley registered the trademark after the Lakers managed to snag their second consecutive NBA title, with the hopes of capitalizing on a third. However, that particular “three-peat” never came to pass. Since then, the term has been used with Riley’s permission by other teams, like the Chicago Bulls in the 90s and later, the Lakers, when they finally managed to pull off three titles in a row in 2002. Outside of basketball, the New York Yankees used the term in 2000, and more recently, the Kansas City Chiefs were hoping for a “three-peat” of their own while facing off against the Philadelphia Eagles. Unfortunately, the Chiefs didn’t fare as well as expected, and their “three-peat” failed to come to pass. The Chiefs weren’t the only losers, though. Anytime a team wants to use the term, they pay royalties to Riley, who gives most of it to his nonprofit foundation. Riley may not have pulled off a “three-peat” of his own, but he’s still coming out on top!

Leave your helmet at home! During a recent press conference, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the league is considering a future in flag football. Flag football is nearly identical to American football, with one key difference: players aren’t allowed to touch each other. Instead, they were belts with three fabric flags on them, and pulling off one of the flags counts as a tackle. It’s a mainstay of P.E. classes across the U.S., but it actually has roots in WWII, when soldiers played this safer version of football as a way to pass the time during deployment. Eventually, the game made its way stateside, where Fort Meade hosted the first flag football game in the early 1940s. Despite its proud historical roots, the sport has never really caught on at the professional level. While flag football is gaining traction at the high school level, this is the first time that the NFL has discussed the possibility of a professional league. In fact, they’re considering two: one for men and another for women. NFL viewers have already been given a soft introduction via the Pro Bowl, which started featuring flag football in 2022. Although Goodell didn’t specify a timeline, he said that there is a significant amount of interest from both players and investors. No pain, no gain? No way.

Here’s a guy who really knows how to throw his weight around! For the first time in three and a half years, Sumo wrestling has named a new Yokozuna grand champion, the highest rank in the sport. Hoshoryu, a 25-year-old Mongolian sumo wrestler, has been dominating the sumo world since his debut. Formerly an Ozeki champion, the second highest rank, Hoshoryu was recently recommended for promotion after winning his second grand tournament title. In sumo, wrestlers are ranked based on the number of bouts won between a certain number of tournaments as well as how many championship wins they’ve racked up. Promotions also depend on a wrestler's conduct during competition, and they can be denied for poor sportsmanship or anything else that might affect the dignity of the sport. That means that going up in rank isn’t automatic and must be decided upon by the sport’s governing body. The lowest rank is called Jonokuchi, where most aspiring sumo wrestlers begin their career. Hoshoryu is only the 74th Yokozuna in sumo history, and his promotion averted a potential disaster. The last Yokozuna retired abruptly during a recent tournament, leaving no other active Yokozuna in the ranking list set to compete in an upcoming tournament in March, the first such occurrence since 1993. When it comes to sumo, breaking such a tradition would be a big deal.

[Image description: An illustration of two sumo wrestlers competing as two judges look on.] Credit & copyright: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sumo Wrestling, Utagawa Kuniteru, Japanese, 19th century. Gift of Lincoln Kirstein, 1960, Object Number: 60.129, Public Domain, Creative Commons Zero (CC0).
 

The winter cold might have most people huddling by the fireplace, but some athletes really love to break the norm. For proof, look no further than the Winter Olympics, the first of which took place on this day in 1924 in Chamonix, France. The First Olympic Winter Games drew 10,004 paying spectators who watched 250 athletes represent 16 countries from around the world. Compared to today’s packed schedule, the Chamonix games only had 16 events, and some of them might not be recognizable today. One winter sport that has changed drastically is figure skating, which sees modern athletes mixing artistic choreography with acrobatic maneuvers on the ice. When it first debuted, though, the sport was all about competitors drawing “figures” on the ice with their skates. And instead of leotards and bodysuits, they were clad in warm winter apparel, as they only had outdoor rinks to skate on. The first Winter Games also weren’t without controversy. American athlete Anders Haugen was originally denied a bronze medal in ski jumping due to a marking error. In a shocking turn of events, when the error was discovered 50 years later, he was finally awarded his medal. That’s quite a cold case even for a winter sport.

[Image description: White ice skates hanging in front of a red background.] Credit & copyright: Thomas Laukat, Pexels
 

Forget the polish: they’re starting from scratch. Some Olympians who earned medals during the 2024 Paris Olympics are starting to ask for replacements after their prizes started showing signs of significant deterioration. Designed by Parisian jewelry house Chaumet and manufactured by the Monnaie de Paris, the French mint, 5,084 medals were handed out during the Paris Olympics and Paralympics last year. The medals were made with something extra inside them—a piece of the Eiffel Tower itself. These pieces came from girders and other parts of the tower that were replaced during renovations. With 18,038 iron parts making up the entirety of the tower, renovation is an ongoing process that often involves swapping out old components. But it seems that the Olympic medals that contain pieces of the tower need renovations of their own. Some athletes posted pictures of their medals deteriorating while the games were still ongoing, like American skateboarder Nyjah Huston, whose video went viral on social media. Since then, many more have spoken out about the issue. The affected medals are described as having “crocodile skin” from corrosion. The actual cause of the damage is unknown, but the Monnaie de Paris is set to begin making replacements in the coming weeks. Replacing over 5,000 medals sounds like an Olympic feat of its own.

Before you checkmate, check your outfit. Living chess legend Magnus Carlsen was briefly barred from competing at the recent World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships after he tried to play the game while wearing jeans. The World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships are where the best of the best in chess gather to compete against one another under tight time constraints. The championships are actually a combination of the Rapid and Blitz competitions, which both have men and women’s competitions. They’ve only been going on since 2012, and are the largest competitions in that format recognized by the International Chess Federation (FIDE). Competitors are allowed three minutes and two seconds of additional time per move in Blitz, and 15 minutes and 10 seconds in Rapid, making for blindingly fast games compared to the conventional format. But fast doesn’t mean casual, and Carlsen was barred for trying to play in jeans, which went against regulations set by FIDE. He was also fined $200 and given a chance to change, but refused on principle. Carlsen was eventually given a pass and allowed to compete in jeans, but the temporary delay caused a public outcry and made headlines around the world for highlighting FIDE’s strict dress code. You don’t have to dress smart to be smart, but you have to dress smart to play chess.
 

[Image description: Elaborate pieces of an 18th-19th century chess set with pieces carved to look like people, ships, elephants, and soldiers on horseback.] Credit & copyright: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chess set, Russian, Kholmogory. Late 18th–early 19th century. Public Domain, Creative Commons Zero license.