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We Can Pod It Out 64: Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
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We Can Pod It Out 64: Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

Plus, Norwegian baseball history!

The subject for today’s fun fact couldn’t have presented itself more easily.

John Anderson is, by a long shot over Arndt Jorgens and Jimmy Wiggs, the best major league player born in Norway, with wood that powered 50 home runs and a .290/.329/.405 line from 1894-1908 with the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, Washington Senators (National League — on what seems like a most-of-the-season kind of loan in 1898), Milwaukee Brewers (original American League), St. Louis Browns, New York Highlanders, Washington Senators (first American League version), and Chicago White Sox. Anderson led the National League in triples with 22 in 1898 (he was really good for Washington!) and the American League with 39 stolen bases in 1906.

Lest the speedy Norwegian become some kind of trope, Anderson is responsible for 338 of the 341 all-time stolen bases by Norwegian players. Jorgens swiped three bags in 307 games from 1929-39 with the Yankees. All with the Yankees. Jorgens was part of five World Series winners and did not play a single inning of postseason baseball, because he was the backup catcher all those years for Hall of Famer Bill Dickey

Wiggs didn’t steal any bases in his major league career, with the 1903 Reds and 1905-06 Tigers. In 56.2 career innings, Wiggs only gave up one home run, on May 16, 1906, to Socks Seybold of the A’s, part of a Philadelphia lineup that day that included Harry Armbruster, Bris Lord, Monte Cross, and Ossee Schrecongost. It was a different time. That bird has flown.

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