689
"autism didn't exist back in my day" (lemmy.nz)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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dude was an absolute character

In between those events, he won 22 games for the Philadelphia Athletics; [...] toured the nation in a melodrama called The Stain of Guilt; courted, married, and became separated from May Wynne Skinner of Lynn, Massachusetts; saved a woman from drowning; accidentally shot a friend through the hand; and was bitten by a lion."

the wikipedia just RANDOMLY DROPPED that he was bitten by a LION with no context?!?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Waddell

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[-] QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 108 points 10 months ago

While in spring training with the Millers, Waddell helped save the city of Hickman, Kentucky, from a devastating flood in the spring of 1912.[15] Catching pneumonia, he lost much of the vitality that had sustained him, and a second flood in Hickman and another ensuing case of pneumonia in 1913 took the rest

???!??!!!!!?!

[-] QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 78 points 10 months ago

Waddell's increasingly erratic behavior included an incident in which he got into a fistfight on a cross-country train after making fun of a teammate's straw hat.

[-] QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 93 points 10 months ago

Recent commentators such as Bill James have suggested that Waddell suffered from a developmental disability, mental retardation, autism, or attention deficit disorder (ADD). Not much was known about these mental conditions, or their diagnoses, at the time.

the man who chased firetrucks during a major league baseball game has autism?! shocked I tell you

[-] QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 62 points 10 months ago

. But in a league game in Detroit, Waddell actually had his outfielders come in close and sit down on the grass to watch him strike out the side

he wanted his friends to watch him do a trick 😭😭😭😭

[-] QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 74 points 10 months ago

Mack offered Waddell a three-day fishing vacation if he agreed to pitch the second game. After Waddell threw a complete-game shutout for the victory, he headed to Pewaukee Lake to go fishing.

omg they bribed him with fishing to work for them that's so cuteee

[-] QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 32 points 10 months ago

istg this would be me if ADHD medicine didn't exist

[-] eah@programming.dev 25 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Little did anybody know that Rube was actually a dog in a human body.

[-] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 6 points 10 months ago

There's no rule about dogs playing baseball, afawk, it could be an actual dog.

[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 101 points 10 months ago

Grandpa: I don’t have autism wtf are you talking about

Also Grandpa: I’ve meticulously organized my workshop and have a massive array of jars with lids fastened to the bottom side of my shelves; they are organized, in order, according to type, outer diameter, inner diameter, and finally, metallurgy.

[-] Soup@lemmy.world 42 points 10 months ago

It’s good to be orgranized and it ain’t no flex to not be BUT it’s the passion that really seal the deal here. It’s like how I don’t manage my cables simply because I like to be neat but more that I manage them because if they aren’t organized I cannot function at full capacity just knowing that things are a mess.

[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 19 points 10 months ago

Gotta rizz ‘em with the ‘tism

[-] TheDoozer@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago

I work in helicopter maintenance, so reading this I was thinking, "yeah, and?"

It makes any task so much faster when you know exactly where the thing you need is.

The metallurgy is important, too, because different things corrode at different rates, and in contact with different metals.

Incidentally, that part in Big Hero 6 when Wasabi has his tools lined out, with every part and tool accounted for, I thought his shop area was well maintained and appropriate, especially working with such dangerous technology. Then they tried to portray him as mildly OCD or something, and I just thought everyone else was wrong. And Go-Go just grabbing a tool without checking it out was completely inappropriate and poor tool control.

[-] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

Oh buddy have you seen the hangar safety video? It's long but I don't regret watching it. I'll set the link to the part you mentioned.

https://youtu.be/3Gr1MP_Wtdo&t=8m1s

[-] TheDoozer@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

That's hilarious, I worked with the guy in the video who bro-ed out with a wrench in his pocket.

Edit: watched more of the video, I worked with the guy doing the rap at the beginning as well. Small world.

[-] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

No way! I seriously consider this an underrated and hidden gem.

[-] anothercatgirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 months ago

thanks for sharing good video

[-] QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

my grandpa obsessed over fishing, TV sports, and Volkswagen beetles, every year for Christmas I would get him a little beetle figurine. he is 100% the source of autism in our family

[-] karashta@piefed.social 54 points 10 months ago

They'll say this and then not remember that dude who cataloged like a thousand types of fern or some shit in his life.

[-] Rednax@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago

I once visited a museum in Split where they had the lifework of a guy on display: dozens of scenes filled with taxidermy frogs going about their human like lives.

[-] EvilBit@lemmy.world 48 points 10 months ago

Highly recommended podcast episode about it.

https://archive.org/details/The.Dollop.Ep12.The.Rube

[-] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 months ago

Was going to recommend the dollop episode on him if it wasn’t already.

[-] mimreos@piefed.social 2 points 10 months ago

Absolutely, came here looking for this. Great episode.

[-] Iheartcheese@lemmy.world 43 points 10 months ago

I hope he got a puppy :(

[-] Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

he played for 13 years, with the Louisville Colonels, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Chicago Orphans

They had some weird team names back in the day, at least this one isn't a slur though

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

Yeah how the hell do you engage in swashbuckling in Pittsburgh‽

[-] frog@feddit.uk 9 points 10 months ago

In an official complaint, an AA official claimed the Alleghenys' signing of Bierbauer was "piratical".[12] This incident quickly accelerated into a schism between the leagues that contributed to the demise of the A.A. Although the Alleghenys were never found guilty of wrongdoing, their allegedly "piratical" act gained them the occasional nickname "Pirates" from newspapers around the country, starting in 1891. Within a few years, the nickname caught on with even Pittsburgh newspapers.[13] The nickname was first acknowledged on the team's uniforms in 1912.

Source: Wikipedia

[-] DylanMc6@lemmy.ml 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

i think the washington commanders should've went with "washington kindergarten" or "washington rich snobs"

[-] chuckleslord@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

They've changed their name since. Now they're the Chicago Cubs

[-] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 7 points 10 months ago

They should go back.

[-] Lemmynated@lemmy.zip 5 points 10 months ago

Meet halfway, Chicago Orphan Cubs?

[-] DempstersBox@lemmy.world 26 points 10 months ago

Sounds like a fuckin banger of an existence

[-] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 13 points 10 months ago

He lived to the ripe old age of 37

[-] Lemmynated@lemmy.zip 13 points 10 months ago

As someone who recently turned 38, I am envious.

[-] y0kai@anarchist.nexus 23 points 10 months ago

well i am not a baseball fan and am usually very bad at picking "favorites" but this is an easy "favorite basball player" if anyone asks me from now on.

[-] DylanMc6@lemmy.ml 14 points 10 months ago

"decidedly different" should've been the euphemism for autistic people years ago. seriously!

[-] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 13 points 10 months ago

In elementary school we never heard of autism, and this was way before Talwin and Ritalin came on the scene, but we had something called "Mrs. Dooley's Class".

[-] DylanMc6@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago

there are autistic people in the 20th century, and my Mom, my older sibling and i actually have autism. seriously.

[-] QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago

"autism didn't exist back when I was little" -my mom who is autistic. Daughter of my grandpa, who is also autistic

[-] als@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 10 months ago

strengthened his arm as a child by throwing rocks at birds he encountered while working on his family's land

[-] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Turns out that folks with BPD can be geniuses at things to.

[-] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago

The dollop made an excellent episode on this guy: The Rube

this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2025
689 points (98.5% liked)

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