8 Surprising Facts About Some of The Most Popular Baseball Players of All Time!

5. Honus Wagner – These days when we hear about Honus Wagner, it’s usually in relation to his ultra-rare, uber-valuable baseball cards. And while Honus obviously had a marvelous career that lead to such a coveted card, it was his brother Albert who was supposed to be the baseball phenom. It wasn’t until 1895 that Albert suggested Honus fill in for his Inter-State League team; the rest is history.

6. Lou Gehrig– We all know of the unfortunate circumstance that lead to Lou Gehrig’s disease, but something you might not know is Gehrig was much more than just a standout baseball player. He was also a fullback for his college football team (he actually got a football scholarship to Columbia University), and majored in engineering!

7. Ty Cobb– Ty Cobb is known for setting 90 records during his MLB career (many of which are still intact), yet few know of his shrewd business savvy. Cobb was an early investor in Coca-Cola, and when he died in 1961, he was worth more than $12 million!

8. Yogi Berra – Yogi Berra will forever live on in the hearts of baseball fans as the witty star catcher who always had something interesting to say. With famous quotes, such as “The future ain’t what it used to be,” or “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” it’s easy to see why he has his own cartoon character named after him (Yogi Bear). What you might not have known about Berra is that he was a gunner’s mate on the invasion of Normandy, aka D-Day.

We hope you enjoyed this brief foray into baseball history as much as we did, and hopefully you learned something! Interested in more tidbits about some of our favorites? Check out these fun facts about The Rat Pack!