15 facts that should be common knowledge but aren’t

I don’t really trust the info in lists like this, but I hope some of these are true, like:

On average 2500 left-handed people die each year from using products designed for right-handed people.

That number sounds like bullshit, but this would make for a great murder mystery. Villain schemes to kill our left-handed hero by lending him tools. That’s why there has never been a left-handed James Bond. “Thank you for letting me use your golden chainsaw, Goldfinger. I really want to finish this DIY project before the snow comes.” Perfect crime! There’s no law against lending a neighbor your tools.

This next one might be true, but I have not researched it:

World War One officially ended on October 3 2010. That was the day that Germany paid its final reparations under the Treaty of Versailles.

Forget all that meaningful geopolitical stuff. I’m especially rooting for this one:

Goldfish bowls are a bad place to keep goldfish

I’ll add one of my own:

Jackie Robinson was not the first black player in 20th century major league baseball, and therefore did not break the modern “color” barrier.

Robinson’s specific achievement was that he was the first African-American man to play in the 20th century. Some African-Caribbean players preceded him in the 20th century, and there were even some African-Americans in the 19th.

In 1944, three years before Robinson’s debut, an African-Cuban man named Tomas de la Cruz slipped under the radar as a regular starting pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. (De la Cruz’s achievement is doubly impressive, because he wasn’t even playing in a friendly home town. Cincinnati is just about a southern city, with suburbs in Kentucky! One must wince to think of the problems he must have endured.) With WW2 raging, the majors were so desperate for players in 1944 that “Tommy” was barely noticed. Although he pitched respectably (9-9, 3.25 ERA), he was no longer on the roster once the first white guys started drifting back from the war. Coincidentally, de la Cruz also wore #42, the number Robinson would make famous.

De la Cruz was obviously a black guy, but even before him came at least three Latin-American players of mixed descent (some African included) who slipped under the racial radar: Roberto Estalella, Alex Carrasquel, and Hiram Bithorn. The ploy of having dark-skinned Latinos being passed off as foreigners and therefore not “true blacks” (i.e., those of the African-American variety) has contributed not only to the history of the sport, but to its folklore as well. You may remember the Richard Pryor character hoping to make the majors by posing as a Latino in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings.

Hiram Bithorn also owns a claim to another bit of historical importance. He was the first Puerto Rican to play in MLB, and should also be called the first Puerto Rican star, easily preceding Vic Power and Roberto Clemente, because in 1943 he won 18 games for the Cubs and led the National League in shutouts. (Clemente was 9 years old at the time.)

Fleetwood Walker was a black man who played in MLB in the 19th century. He was the first regular African-American player, as far as we know. He was the starting catcher for the long-forgotten Toledo Blue Stockings. His brother, Welday Walker, also made a few appearances for that team (18 at bats in five games as an outfielder).

The first black man to play for an MLB team for any duration (as far as is currently known) was a star Brown University player named William Edward White, who played only one game on June 21, 1879. He was called into emergency service by an injury affecting the crosstown National League team, the Providence Grays. He had a single in four at-bats, two stolen bases, scored a run, and played errorless ball at first base, recording 12 putouts.