About a year and a half ago, a friend suggested I start following a really funny account on Twitter.

Like most people when they hear things of this ilk, I assumed the account was either A) not as funny as this person thought, B) would simply read like a bunch of loosely connected stand-up ideas, C) would come off as a person trying WAY too hard to affect that cute, disconnected brand of Twitter humor that drives me crazy, or D) all of the above.

It turns out, Old Hoss Radbourn was none of those. In fact, it’s an account unlike many others out there. You see, Charles Radbourn was a guy that pitched in professional baseball in the 19th century. As was the case with society, the game was a lot different back then and Radbourn, nicknamed Old Hoss for his ability to pitch nearly every day, actually holds the record for most wins in a season—an astonishing 59 W’s in 1884.

That’s all background to explain this fake account—a pitcher that never saw the 20th century and lived in a time of rampant racism, now commenting on everything from baseball to politics. Here a few choice examples:

 

 

 

Quite the character… or, caricature at least, no?

So, you could imagine my curiosity piquing when I heard about Edward Achorn’s Fifty-nine in ’84. I will admit, idiotically, there was a part of me hoping for the book to be somewhat like the twitter account.

Of course, the book and the twitter handle have little in common aside from their shared protagonist, Old Hoss. And, as I read on, I realized that was probably a good thing. I like funny as much as the next person, but I think 300 pages of off-color, anachronistic quips would become tiresome quickly.

Instead, Achorn’s book takes a look not only at Radbourn’s historical season on the field—one which saw him pitch nearly every single game for the final two months of the season en route to almost literally winning the pennant for Providence single-handedly—but, and perhaps more interestingly, off the field as well, not to mention the wild wild west that was baseball in the 19th century.

For instance, did you know that up until 1884 pitchers weren’t allowed to throw overhand? Or that, for a time, players could decide which strike zone they preferred before going to bat? How about that in the National League, getting hit by a pitch did not constitute a free pass to first base?

Barehanded fielding, penny-pinching owners (literally in some cases), drunken players, shootings, jerseys without numbers (they once tried uniforms color coded by position… you can imagine how that worked out), players having rampant and not-so-closeted relations with prostitutes… These are just some of the everyday details of baseball before it became what we know it as today.

When you do buy the book, take a close look at the cover picture of Old Hoss. At first glance, he appears like most other photos of men from the era… mustachioed, silent and brooding. However, when you look down at his left hand, you’ll notice he’s actually giving the photographer the middle finger.

Pretty good way to start a story, I say.