Departures of note

In 1953, sportswriter Jocko Maxwell published an article in Baseball Digest and an item in Catholic Digest describing a game in which Andy Oyler, playing shortstop for the Minneapolis Millers, ducked to avoid a high pitch, struck the ball with his bat that rested on his shoulder, and the ball lodged in about 24 inches of mud in front of home plate before he completed an inside‑the‑park home run before any opposing players retrieved the ball.

Maxwell said the story originated from WWRL radio station in Woodside, New York; Bill Bryson Sr. repeated it in Baseball Digest in 1958, and Halsey Hall gave a version in which Oyler chopped at a low pitch and the ball stuck in mud two feet from home plate.