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History: Can you name a more incredible sports story than Ron Leflore?
Posted on 4/16/21 at 12:07 pm
Posted on 4/16/21 at 12:07 pm
Your first thought is probably “Who’s Ron Leflore?”, if you are under 50.
Ron Leflore played 9 years in the MLB as a CF’er. He was a career 288 hitter and made the All Star team a few times. Lead the league in Stolen Bases twice. Now that’s nothing incredible. Good player so what? Well here’s why it’s incredible and I’d wager will never happen again:
Ron Leflore didn’t start playing baseball till he was 21 years old. Never played little league. Never picked up a bat. Leflore was in prison, when he started playing baseball. He was serving 5-15 years on an armed robbery charge. Leflore was so good in the prison league, that one of the inmates told a friend of his, a bartender in Detroit. This bar was where many Detroit Tigers hung out including manager Billy Martin. Billy Martin hears about this guy, and travels to the prison to watch him play. An MLB manager in a prison to scout a player! Then the Tigers arrange for LeFlore, while he was still in prison, to go to Tigers Stadium and work out for 1 day. They like what they see and tell him they’ll help him out of prison early if he signs. So he does. 3 years later he’s in the major leagues.
This is by far the most unlikely pro sports story I’ve ever heard. Not only just the prison angle, but the fact any player could start playing baseball in their 20s, and make the major leagues? As a hitter no less.
Ron Leflore played 9 years in the MLB as a CF’er. He was a career 288 hitter and made the All Star team a few times. Lead the league in Stolen Bases twice. Now that’s nothing incredible. Good player so what? Well here’s why it’s incredible and I’d wager will never happen again:
Ron Leflore didn’t start playing baseball till he was 21 years old. Never played little league. Never picked up a bat. Leflore was in prison, when he started playing baseball. He was serving 5-15 years on an armed robbery charge. Leflore was so good in the prison league, that one of the inmates told a friend of his, a bartender in Detroit. This bar was where many Detroit Tigers hung out including manager Billy Martin. Billy Martin hears about this guy, and travels to the prison to watch him play. An MLB manager in a prison to scout a player! Then the Tigers arrange for LeFlore, while he was still in prison, to go to Tigers Stadium and work out for 1 day. They like what they see and tell him they’ll help him out of prison early if he signs. So he does. 3 years later he’s in the major leagues.
This is by far the most unlikely pro sports story I’ve ever heard. Not only just the prison angle, but the fact any player could start playing baseball in their 20s, and make the major leagues? As a hitter no less.
18
Posted on 4/16/21 at 12:11 pm to Boaz
Cool 1st post! It can only go down from here 
Posted on 4/16/21 at 12:14 pm to Boaz
I remember a tv movie about his life. Good story.
Posted on 4/16/21 at 12:22 pm to Boaz
"cant get right?....we'll see how long you last"
Posted on 4/16/21 at 12:23 pm to Boaz
Damn....Chadwick Boseman was born to play this dude...RIP.
Posted on 4/16/21 at 12:24 pm to Boaz
He could really steal
Posted on 4/16/21 at 12:36 pm to Boaz
What the Red Wings had to do to get some of the Russian Five.
Posted on 4/16/21 at 12:37 pm to Boaz
quote:
On May 5, 2007, during an autograph signing, LeFlore was again arrested for failure to pay child support.[14]
must have not been paid very well
Posted on 4/16/21 at 12:39 pm to Boaz
Jim Abbot not a bad story either
Posted on 4/16/21 at 12:40 pm to pvilleguru
I’ve never heard about this. Care to elaborate?
Posted on 4/16/21 at 12:43 pm to kmcmah1
quote:
I’ve never heard about this. Care to elaborate?
Here's the Wikipedia article. Just jump to the section about acquiring the players. LINK
There was also a documentary in 2018 called The Russian Five that had a lot of interviews with the people involved.
Picking up a player outside a hotel, stuffing him on a plane and helping him defect. Bribing several doctors to give false diagnoses to get players discharged from the Russian military. Etc.
This post was edited on 4/16/21 at 12:47 pm
Posted on 4/16/21 at 1:19 pm to pvilleguru
quote:
Here's the Wikipedia article. Just jump to the section about acquiring the players. LINK
I remember all five of them but never knew about all of that part. That's awesome
Posted on 4/16/21 at 1:24 pm to Boaz
quote:
History: Can you name a more incredible sports story than Ron Leflore?
You forgot the story of Lebron James. From the tough inner cities, to NBA star, to Chinese Propaganda Minister.
Posted on 4/16/21 at 1:31 pm to Black n Gold
quote:
You forgot the story of Lebron James. From the tough inner cities, to NBA star, to Chinese Propaganda Minister.
And Civil Rights leader
Posted on 4/16/21 at 1:32 pm to Boaz
Another Good one - Toe Nash
Gregory Nash (born February 16, 1982), nicknamed "Toe" or "Big Toe", is a retired professional baseball player. He played minor league baseball in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now Rays) organization in 2001. Standing at 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) and weighing 220 pounds (100 kg), Nash received his nickname due to his size 18 (US) shoes.
A high school dropout, Nash was discovered by the Devil Rays while playing in a semi-professional league in Sorrento, Louisiana. His life story seemed so improbable that baseball executives at first thought Nash was a hoax, similar to Sidd Finch. Despite his natural ability, compared to Babe Ruth,[1] and the fictional Roy Hobbs character from The Natural, Nash's legal troubles shortened his professional career.[2]
Gregory Nash (born February 16, 1982), nicknamed "Toe" or "Big Toe", is a retired professional baseball player. He played minor league baseball in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now Rays) organization in 2001. Standing at 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) and weighing 220 pounds (100 kg), Nash received his nickname due to his size 18 (US) shoes.
A high school dropout, Nash was discovered by the Devil Rays while playing in a semi-professional league in Sorrento, Louisiana. His life story seemed so improbable that baseball executives at first thought Nash was a hoax, similar to Sidd Finch. Despite his natural ability, compared to Babe Ruth,[1] and the fictional Roy Hobbs character from The Natural, Nash's legal troubles shortened his professional career.[2]
Posted on 4/16/21 at 1:47 pm to Dandy Chiggins
Cliff Young - At 61 he won a 544 mile race on foot in overalls and work boots.
In 1983, the 61-year-old potato farmer won the inaugural Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon, a distance of 875 kilometres (544 mi). The race was run between what were then Australia's two largest Westfield shopping centres, Westfield Parramatta in Sydney and Westfield Doncaster in Melbourne.[6] Young arrived to compete in overalls and work boots, without his dentures (later saying that they rattled when he ran).[7] He ran at a slow and loping pace and trailed the pack by a large margin at the end of the first day. While the other competitors stopped to sleep for six hours, Young kept running. He ran continuously for five days, taking the lead during the first night and eventually winning by 10 hours. Before running the race, he had told the press that he had previously run for two to three days straight rounding up sheep in gumboots.[8] He said afterwards that during the race he imagined he was running after sheep trying to outrun a storm. The Westfield run took him five days, fifteen hours and four minutes,[1] almost two days faster than the previous record for any run between Sydney and Melbourne, at an average speed of 6.5 kilometres per hour (4.0 mph). All six competitors who finished the race broke the old record. Upon being awarded the prize of A$10,000 (equivalent to $32,067 in 2018), Young said that he did not know there was a prize and that he felt bad accepting it as each of the other five runners who finished had worked as hard as he did—so he split the money equally between them, keeping none.[9]
In 1983, the 61-year-old potato farmer won the inaugural Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon, a distance of 875 kilometres (544 mi). The race was run between what were then Australia's two largest Westfield shopping centres, Westfield Parramatta in Sydney and Westfield Doncaster in Melbourne.[6] Young arrived to compete in overalls and work boots, without his dentures (later saying that they rattled when he ran).[7] He ran at a slow and loping pace and trailed the pack by a large margin at the end of the first day. While the other competitors stopped to sleep for six hours, Young kept running. He ran continuously for five days, taking the lead during the first night and eventually winning by 10 hours. Before running the race, he had told the press that he had previously run for two to three days straight rounding up sheep in gumboots.[8] He said afterwards that during the race he imagined he was running after sheep trying to outrun a storm. The Westfield run took him five days, fifteen hours and four minutes,[1] almost two days faster than the previous record for any run between Sydney and Melbourne, at an average speed of 6.5 kilometres per hour (4.0 mph). All six competitors who finished the race broke the old record. Upon being awarded the prize of A$10,000 (equivalent to $32,067 in 2018), Young said that he did not know there was a prize and that he felt bad accepting it as each of the other five runners who finished had worked as hard as he did—so he split the money equally between them, keeping none.[9]
Posted on 4/16/21 at 1:49 pm to Boaz
Watched him play many times.... that dude was Ricky before Ricky......
Posted on 4/16/21 at 2:00 pm to dukke v
quote:
that dude was Ricky before Ricky..
Stop that...you know he wasn't Rickey before Rickey LeFlore was Mookie Wilson before Mookie showed up.
Ron LeFlore as a player is Mookie, Glanville, Gladden range...so stop trying to say he was in same class as GOAT Leadoff hitter
This post was edited on 4/16/21 at 2:02 pm
Posted on 4/16/21 at 2:02 pm to sms151t
But Ricky showed up before kookier.... and you never saw Ron play.....GFY.
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