
Tales from the Dugout
1,001 Humorous, Inspirational and Wild Anecdotes from Minor League Baseball
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.79
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Mark Smeby
-
By:
-
Tim Hagerty
About this listen
A wild bull on the field, a fly ball caught by a train conductor, a pitcher taking the mound barefoot—Minor League Baseball has been played across the country in cities large and small for more than a century, and there are thousands of entertaining and improbable stories to tell from it.
Join professional baseball broadcaster Tim Hagerty for a journey through the zaniest Minor League stories in Tales from the Dugout. Given its long history, it is no surprise that the game has encountered some bizarre things over the years. This humorous and outlandish collection of stories is sourced from newspaper archives and the Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, New York, and includes a foreword by former MLB All-Star Billy Butler. Whether you're a baseball fanatic or just a fan of sports history, this book captures the spirit of the game.
This compendium of minor league shenanigans includes:
- HOLE IN ONE: In 1942, a Milwaukee Brewers batter hit a low line drive that bounced down the right field line. He rounded the bases while confused Louisville Colonels fielders searched for the ball. They eventually found it inside a gopher hole.
- MONKEYING AROUND: A chimp's escape turned a Southern Association game into pandemonium on July 17, 1909. "Henry the Chimpanzee," the New Orleans Pelicans' official mascot, busted from his cage and chased players around the field. The chimp then went after fans, who ran from him screaming. The game was delayed a few minutes while Henry was restrained.
- HEADLESS CRUSHER: A police department in Ohio got a call about a missing head. The Lake Erie Crushers' mascot's head was stolen in 2011, forcing the mascot to miss a few home games. After learning through media reports that police were investigating, the thief returned the head by inconspicuously placing it under the ballpark's tarp.
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
In the Game
- 24 Short Stories About the Extraordinary Game of Baseball
- By: Jamie Adler
- Narrated by: Dru Steeby
- Length: 3 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-four heart-warming, mind-boggling, and history-defining short stories of moments and players—go on a journey through the exciting and emotional world of baseball.
-
-
A Home Run for Any Baseball Fan
- By Anonymous User on 04-21-25
By: Jamie Adler
-
Homestand
- Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America
- By: Will Bardenwerper
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Batavia, New York—between Rochester and Buffalo—hosted its first professional baseball game in 1897. Despite decades of deindustrialization and evaporating middle-class jobs, the Batavia Muckdogs endured. When Major League Baseball cravenly shut them down in 2020—along with forty-one other minor league teams—the town fought back, reviving the Muckdogs as a summer league team comprised of college players.
-
-
Hit the nail on the head
- By BeagleMom on 04-09-25
-
Yankees, Typewriters, Scandals, and Cooperstown
- A Baseball Memoir
- By: Bill Madden, Buck Showalter - foreword
- Narrated by: Gregory Abbey
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before he'd covered dozens of World Series; before he'd written about countless hirings, firings, superstars, and scandals, Bill Madden was a cub reporter on one of his first assignments at Yankee Stadium—and manager Ralph Houk had just gone out of his way to spit tobacco juice all over Madden's shoes. “That’s Ralph’s way with rookie writers he doesn’t recognize,” came the explanation. “He doesn’t mean anything by it.”
By: Bill Madden, and others
-
Play Harder
- The Triumph of Black Baseball in America
- By: Gerald Early, National Baseball Hall of Fame
- Narrated by: Dave Winfield, JD Jackson, Reynaldo Piniella, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No sport has been more associated with America’s sense of itself, with its identity, than baseball. No sport has been so inextricably bound with America’s traditions—with its notions of democracy and fair play—than baseball. And no professional sport in America has been as dramatically connected to social change as Major League Baseball when it became racially integrated the moment Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.
By: Gerald Early, and others
-
1978
- Baseball and America in the Disco Era
- By: David Krell
- Narrated by: David Krell
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From spring training to the World Series, 1978 gave baseball fans one of the sport's greatest seasons, full of legendary moments like the battle between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox for the American League East pennant, Gaylord Perry's three thousandth strikeout, Tom Seaver's only career no-hitter, Willie McCovey's five hundredth home run, and Pete Rose's marathon forty-four-game hitting streak.
By: David Krell
-
Baddest Man
- The Making of Mike Tyson
- By: Mark Kriegel
- Narrated by: Mark Kriegel
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On an evening that defined the "greed is good" 1980s, Donald Trump hosted a raft of celebrities and high rollers in a carnival town on the Jersey Shore to bask in the glow created by a twenty-one-year-old heavyweight champion. Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks that night and in ninety-one frenzied seconds earned more than the annual payrolls of the Los Angeles Lakers' and Boston Celtics' players combined.
By: Mark Kriegel
-
In the Game
- 24 Short Stories About the Extraordinary Game of Baseball
- By: Jamie Adler
- Narrated by: Dru Steeby
- Length: 3 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-four heart-warming, mind-boggling, and history-defining short stories of moments and players—go on a journey through the exciting and emotional world of baseball.
-
-
A Home Run for Any Baseball Fan
- By Anonymous User on 04-21-25
By: Jamie Adler
-
Homestand
- Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America
- By: Will Bardenwerper
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Batavia, New York—between Rochester and Buffalo—hosted its first professional baseball game in 1897. Despite decades of deindustrialization and evaporating middle-class jobs, the Batavia Muckdogs endured. When Major League Baseball cravenly shut them down in 2020—along with forty-one other minor league teams—the town fought back, reviving the Muckdogs as a summer league team comprised of college players.
-
-
Hit the nail on the head
- By BeagleMom on 04-09-25
-
Yankees, Typewriters, Scandals, and Cooperstown
- A Baseball Memoir
- By: Bill Madden, Buck Showalter - foreword
- Narrated by: Gregory Abbey
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before he'd covered dozens of World Series; before he'd written about countless hirings, firings, superstars, and scandals, Bill Madden was a cub reporter on one of his first assignments at Yankee Stadium—and manager Ralph Houk had just gone out of his way to spit tobacco juice all over Madden's shoes. “That’s Ralph’s way with rookie writers he doesn’t recognize,” came the explanation. “He doesn’t mean anything by it.”
By: Bill Madden, and others
-
Play Harder
- The Triumph of Black Baseball in America
- By: Gerald Early, National Baseball Hall of Fame
- Narrated by: Dave Winfield, JD Jackson, Reynaldo Piniella, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No sport has been more associated with America’s sense of itself, with its identity, than baseball. No sport has been so inextricably bound with America’s traditions—with its notions of democracy and fair play—than baseball. And no professional sport in America has been as dramatically connected to social change as Major League Baseball when it became racially integrated the moment Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.
By: Gerald Early, and others
-
1978
- Baseball and America in the Disco Era
- By: David Krell
- Narrated by: David Krell
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From spring training to the World Series, 1978 gave baseball fans one of the sport's greatest seasons, full of legendary moments like the battle between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox for the American League East pennant, Gaylord Perry's three thousandth strikeout, Tom Seaver's only career no-hitter, Willie McCovey's five hundredth home run, and Pete Rose's marathon forty-four-game hitting streak.
By: David Krell
-
Baddest Man
- The Making of Mike Tyson
- By: Mark Kriegel
- Narrated by: Mark Kriegel
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On an evening that defined the "greed is good" 1980s, Donald Trump hosted a raft of celebrities and high rollers in a carnival town on the Jersey Shore to bask in the glow created by a twenty-one-year-old heavyweight champion. Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks that night and in ninety-one frenzied seconds earned more than the annual payrolls of the Los Angeles Lakers' and Boston Celtics' players combined.
By: Mark Kriegel