Today in Sports History: August 17th

It was not a good day to be Alice Roth, the wife of Philadelphia Bulletin sports editor Earl Roth. Mrs. Roth was sitting in the stands when Richie Ashburn of the Philadelphia Phillies lined a ball into foul territory. The ball came right at Alice and smacked her plain in the face, breaking her nose. The game was briefly delayed while a stretcher was called so she could seek medical attention. But as she was being carted to the doctor’s office, she was pelted with yet another foul ball hit from the bat of Ashburn.

Of all the celebrity renditions of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at Wrigley Field, none is remembered quite as infamously as Ozzy Osbourne’s. The Black Sabbath singer was indiscernible for most of the song, with only the beginning and ends making any sense at all. The middle featured slurred mumbling that only slightly followed the organ playing in the background.

“I saw it as a call of the wild,” said Cubs outfielder Doug Glanville. “I was looking around to see if some herd of wild emu or wild water buffalo were coming to meet their master. But it never happened -- because he was so off-key. But I’m sure there are probably many wild habitats where, if you played that, they would have really felt it. They’d have formed all kinds of mysterious formations, I bet. So we need to take this tape and play it in various habitats and jungles, wild-animal environments, and see how everything responds.”

Osbourne’s wife Sharon offered an explanation. “Ozzy was over-medicated,” she said. “He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t walk. He was falling over. Ozzy would call (his doctor at the time) and tell him how bad he was feeling, and (the doctor) would say, ‘Take five more of those and 10 more of these.’ It was insane.”