The Dugout: Axe of the Dwarvish Lords

Written by Brandon Stroud / 05.09.11

R. A. Dickey has dumb names for his bats

Back in April, the New York Times did a story about Mets knuckleballer/lobber R.A. Dickey and his unusually named bats, and while having a bat named after The Hobbit is pretty amazing, it’s nowhere near as amazing as the retraction at the bottom.

Correction: May 8, 2011

An item in the Extra Bases baseball notebook last Sunday misidentified, in some editions, the origin of the name Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver, which Mets pitcher R. A. Dickey gave one of his bats. Orcrist was not, as Dickey had said, the name of the sword used by Bilbo Baggins in the Misty Mountains in “The Hobbit”; Orcrist was the sword used by the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield in the book. (Bilbo Baggins’s sword was called Sting.)

I love living in a world where this is not only factual information about sports, but in need of such a hyper-specific, nerdy retraction. To enjoy today’s Dugout, please remember that R.A. Dickey owns a bunch of bats with Dwight Schrute names and that for a large period of my life I was very lonely and read a lot of books. Today’s Dugout is after the jump.

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These Nuns Is About To Get Paid

Written by Ashley Burns / 10.27.10

Honus

A Baltimore-based order of nuns is cashing in on a pretty sweet present that was willed to them more than 11 years ago. The School Sisters of Notre Dame are auctioning off one of 60 known Honus Wagner baseball cards from the American Tobacco Company series of 1909-1911. The card is in terrible condition but is still likely to earn the nuns about $200,000, which they will split up among their 35 ministries worldwide. Or they can take their chances and trade me the card for what I’m holding up in this box right now. I’ll give you a hint – it’s porn.

The auction of this card has collectors and experts scratching their heads, because until now nobody has known that this specific card existed, since it had been owned by the same guy for more than 60 years. The card has been cut on the borders and has a heavy crease in one corner, and this is the very same language that caused me to not touch my first female boob until I was 17. Male boobs, however…

Where in the heavens did this card come from, NBC Sports?

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