March 13, 1917 – After hearing that Gabby Street had caught a ball dropped off the Washington Monument in 1908, Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson brags that he could catch a ball dropped from an airplane at spring training, even though he is in his mid-50s and well above his playing weight.

As the event takes place, Robinson circles unsteadily under the descending spheroid. Instead of a baseball, a grapefruit was secretly substituted and it explodes on impact with his glove. “Help me, Lads, I’m covered with my own blood!” – Once he feels the ooze, Robinson screams, until he tastes the juice. Aviatrix Ruth Law dropped the grapefruit as outfielder Casey Stengel assumed culpability for the switch.

He later concedes that he probably would have been killed if a real baseball had been dropped from the plane. Aviatrix Ruth Law dropped the grapefruit as outfielder Casey Stengel assumed culpability for the switch.

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