# Joe Sprinz **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 17, 2003, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-sprinz/219556 "2003-12-17T16:58:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-sprinz/219556/1 "2003-12-17T16:58:29Z")
In this classic column on [Joe Sprinz](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_300.html), Cecil cited the Guinness World Records book as saying that ol’ Joe caught the ball, albeit with his teeth. The first two Web sources I found after a Google search state that he missed the ball and that the stunt was thereafter dubbed “The greatest catch that was never made.” [http://www.senior-spectrum.com/columnists/gilliam\_042203/](http://www.senior-spectrum.com/columnists/gilliam_042203/) [http://www.weekender.co.jp/LatestEdition/981120/strange.html](http://www.weekender.co.jp/LatestEdition/981120/strange.html) (The online Guinness World Records [http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/) didn’t have an entry on ol’ Joe.) I wonder what really happened on that summer day in 1939 … ---
**Author:** ![sford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/edb3f5/32.png) [@sford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sford)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-sprinz/219556/2 "2003-12-17T17:37:54Z")
On an amost unrelated topic, why dig Slug draw a fish taking a pic? Did he suspect that it was all a “one that got away” story? ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-sprinz/219556/3 "2003-12-17T17:46:37Z")
Ten-yard penalty for an illegal hijack, **sford**. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Jinxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Lady\_Jinxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Jinxx)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-sprinz/219556/4 "2003-12-17T18:51:08Z")
Spiff, Perhaps it was the term “Highest Catch” which prompted the fish to take a picture. I’d be pretty excited, myself, seeing as how whenever I type in the words “highest catch” on Google I get a lot of hits about fish. That is, I would be excited… IF I were a fish. ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Jinxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Lady\_Jinxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Jinxx)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-sprinz/219556/5 "2003-12-17T18:54:17Z")
I’m sorry, the above post was meant for sford, not Spiff. First post and already I’m comitting the sin of faux pas… _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-sprinz/219556/6 "2003-12-17T19:05:42Z")
I got curious and started Googling too. In short order I found [this](http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/S/Sprinz_Joe.stm): > [@](#): > > August 3rd, 1939: Veteran C Joe Sprinz of the San Francisco Seals (PCL) tries to break the altitude record for a catch as a stunt at the Treasure Island Exhibition. A ball is dropped 800 feet from a blimp and hits him in the face. He suffers a compound fracture of the jaw and loses several teeth. There were quite a lot of hits, but of the five or so I checked that’s the only one that made any reference to this stunt. “Hits him in the face” makes it sound more like an accident to me, though. ---
**Author:** ![sford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/edb3f5/32.png) [@sford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sford)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-sprinz/219556/7 "2003-12-17T20:56:31Z")
jackelope, I think it certainly was an accident. I assume he meant to catch it with his glove. Cecil’s joke about catching it with his teeth wasn’t supposed to imply that he intended to do so. Spiff, I said it was _almost_ unrelated! That only earns me a slap on the back of the hand. Preferably with Lady Jinxx’s fake paw.