THEY WEREN'T PLEASED TO MITT HIM!
"For his 20 seasons in the major leagues (1915-1934), Muddy Ruel, the Detroit general manager, worked behind the plate so regularly that it was surprising to find him listed as 'C-1B' in an old record book.
Ruel confirmed the double identity. In 1925, while helping Washington win the pennant, he was picked to replace Joe Judge, a left-handed first baseman.
'It happened in Boston,' Ruel recalled. 'After Judge was hurt, we found we had no first baseman's mitt except the one that belonged to him.
'I asked the Red Sox to lend me one that a right-hander could use. They laughed at me. I can still hear a voice back in the dugout: 'Let the so-and-so see what he can do with his bare hands.'
'The result was I played first base with my catcher's mitt. Fortunately, it was only for a couple of days.' "
-Sam Greene in the Detroit News (Baseball Digest, August 1954)
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