New York Yankees: The Day Ping Bodie Out-Ate an Ostrich

There were a lot of strange occurrences in the early days of baseball, but perhaps the oddest involved New York Yankees outfielder Ping Bodie and an ostrich engaging in a pasta eating contest.

These days, Major League Baseball players make a great deal of money. Even those making the league minimum make more in a year than most of us will see after five or six years of toiling away at our jobs. However, that was not always the case, as ballplayers oftentimes took up other jobs after the season, or would engage in various contests.

Their teams were often in the same situation. It seems strange to think of a team like the New York Yankees having to resort to barnstorming or publicity stunts, but that was the case throughout baseball during those early days. It also set the stage for some truly bizarre stories surrounding players and teams.

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One of the stranger moments from the early days of baseball took place nearly 100 years ago today. Yankees outfielder Bing Podie and an ostrich named Percy took part in a spaghetti eating contest in Jacksonville, Florida. At the time, Percy the Ostrich was known for its ravenous appetite, and was considered the greatest eater in the world. Yankees co-owner Colonel T.L. Huston set up the challenge, saying that Podie would best the bird.

According to the accounts at the time, Podie and the bird were neck and beak after the third bowl, but Percy began to slow down from that point. The ostrich’s sides began to swell after the fourth bowl, and people began leaving after the sixth bowl, not wanting to see the bird explode from the spaghetti intake. Even though it was obvious that Podie was going to win, the bird kept on going, before staggering off and either passing out or dying, depending on the story, following the eleventh bowl of pasta.

Obviously, it was a much different time almost 100 years ago. The circus freak shows were everywhere, and oddities were a major draw. At times, baseball teams, and players, had to put up with some truly strange things to make some extra money. However, nothing may be odder in the annuls of baseball history than having a ballplayer challenge an ostrich to an eating contest.

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These days, the New York Yankees can almost print their own money, and baseball players do quite well for themselves. However, almost 100 years ago, they had to resort to events like an eating contest with an ostrich to get by.