Stuntman Greg Gasson doesn’t wear a parachute when he jumps out of a plane. He doesn’t even wear shoes! Instead, he grabs a packed parachute with his hands. Don’t try this at home -or anywhere! -via Buzzfeed

(YouTube Link)

It was a great idea to make a stunt video that shows what video game combat would look like in real life, and it makes for an action packed minute-and-a-half. But why do the bad guys always stand around, waiting for their turn to face the character instead of just mobbing them en masse?

And why does kicking ass mean characters fly through the air, throwing flying punches and other equally ineffective moves? Oh well, please excuse my criticisms and enjoy this video showing what Catwoman would look like kicking some street thug tail.

–via ComicsAlliance

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

Tens of thousands of games have been played in the history of Major League Baseball. But on August 19th, 1951, the strangest baseball at-bat ever recorded took place in Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. It was on that day, sixty years ago, that a 3’7″ player came to bat.

Edward Carl Gaedel was born on June 8, 1925. His parents and siblings were all of normal stature, but Eddie, for some unknown reason, just stopped growing sometime during his term in elementary school. According to his sister, “He cried a lot because people used to bother him. He’d come home swearing.”

As an adult, Eddie found work as a mascot for Mercury Records and during World War II Eddie had found employment as a riveter (his stature made it easy for him to crawl inside the wings of planes). By 1951, Eddie was working as a bartender at “The Midget Club,” a bar in Chicago that employed only little people.

In 1951, Bill Veeck was the colorful owner of the St. Louis Browns, the worst team in baseball. Veeck was known for thinking up wild publicity stunts to help draw crowds in to come and watch the pathetic, perennial cellar-dwelling Browns.

The original idea of a little person batting in a baseball game had been used in a 1941 short story (no pun intended) by James Thurber called “You Could Look It Up” (Veeck always denied the story was his inspiration).

In mid-August of 1951, Bill Veeck gave his car keys to the Brown’s public relations man, Jay Edson. Edson was told to go to the given address in Chicago and pick up a guy called Eddie Gaedel. “He’s a midget,” said Veeck.

“A midget?” inquired Edson, slightly surprised.

“Yes,” intoned Veeck.

Gaedel was picked up at his Chicago address, driven to St. Louis, and smuggled into the Chase hotel, wrapped in a blanket. A double-header was scheduled between the Browns and the Detroit Tigers the next day. The crowd of 18,369 had been promised “a festival of surprises” by Veeck.

Between games, Eddie popped out of a giant plastic cake, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the American League and in celebration of the Falstaff brewery. Gaedel’s appearance brought happy laughter from the crowd, who at the time had no idea of the strange baseball history soon to be made. In the bottom of the first inning of game two, the surprised crowd looked on as St. Louis manager Zach Taylor sent Eddie Gaedel up to pinch-hit for lead-off batter Frank Saucier.

Eddie came to the on-deck circle swinging three toy bats. He tossed two to the side and walked to the plate carrying his toy bat, the smallest bat ever to be used in a Major League baseball game. Gaedel wore a borrowed batboy’s uniform which sported the number 1/8. The crowd, at first surprised, was quiet, then burst into raucous laughter.

Ed Hurley, the home plate umpire, was duly shown Gaedel’s contract (legally signed a few days earlier and wired to Major League offices) and Eddie stood at the plate, in a slight batter’s crouch. Before he came to the plate, Gaedel had been warned solemnly by Bill Veeck that he’d have a rifle aimed at his head and if he dared swing, he’d pull the trigger. (In Thurber’s short story, the LP had swung on ball four and grounded out, ending the game.)

Bob Swift, the Tiger catcher, went to the pitcher’s mound and told pitcher Bob Cain to “keep it low.” Swift walked behind the plate and got down on his knees. Pitcher Cain was cracking up and, according to Swift, they were both “laughing so hard they could hardly go through the motions.”

Gaedel walked on four straight pitches. He ran down the first base line, stepped on the bag, tipped his hat to the roaring crowd, and ran off the field.

“Man, I felt like Babe Ruth,” Gaedel recalled, in a touching memory of his immortal moment. Jim Delsing ran onto the field to pinch-run for the departing Gaedel. The Tigers won the game 6-2.

The next day, American League president Will Harridge declared that Eddie Gaedel’s plate appearance would never be repeated and that his name would be stricken from baseball’s record book. He was right on the first count, but wrong on the second. Edward Carl “Eddie” Gaedel is immortalized in baseball’s record book: “1951, pinch-hitter, St. Louis Browns- 1 game, 1 plate appearance, 1 walk, and a perfect on-base percentage of 1.000.”

At 3’7″ and 65 pounds, he is both the shortest and the lightest ever batter in Major League history. Eddie was paid $100 for his brief but unforgettable at-bat, but he made $17,000 on TV appearances resulting from it. Eddie could have made a lot more money from his historic at-bat; the offers poured in, but he hated to travel, preferring to stay in Chicago.

In 1951, the Tigers finished the season in fifth place, while the Browns finished in their customary slot -dead last. In 1959, Eddie made his last public appearance, dressed as a Martian and appearing out of a flying saucer at Comiskey Park in Chicago. He presented his Martian ray gun to White Sox players Nellie Fox and Minie Minoso. The owner of the 1959 White Sox? Bill Veeck- who else?

Sadly, Eddie was brutally beaten up in a mugging/robbery two years later. (For most of his adult life, he had a chronic drinking problem and was known for getting into severe bar fights.) On June 8, 1961, he was found dead in his room by a family member. Somehow, after his savage beating, he had managed to make it back to his home. The Chicago Police Department refused to investigate the crime any further because of Eddie’s notorious reputation.

Bob Cain drove 300 miles to Chicago to make it to Eddie’s funeral. For the last ten years of his life, Eddie and Bob had exchanged Christmas cards. Cain was the only Major League player to attend the funeral. Bill Veeck didn’t make it, saying he was “too busy.”

In 1999, the sporting news voted Eddie Gaedel’s plate appearance as #1 on their list of “Unusual and Unforgettable Moments” in baseball history. Eddie Gaedel’s St. Louis Browns unforgettable number 1/8 uniform is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. His autograph now sells for more than Babe Ruth’s.

Josh proposed to Brook and took the idea of a “leap of faith” to a ridiculous level! I don’t think her “No way!” is a rejection; I think she was only shocked and probably trying to lower her blood pressure. -via I Am Bored

Even super heroes like to take time for a little recreational skiing! This picture was taken at Sea World in Orlando, Florida during the mid 1970s. Link -via Mostly Forbidden Zone

Chris Unitt was brave enough to become a prop for a bicyclist during a promotion for Cirque Eloize in Boston. He’s got more nerves than I do! Link -via The Daily What

This is just the latest in a line of crazy PR stunts Hot Wheels has been pulling lately. Top Gear host (and pro stunt driver) Tanner Foust drove down a steep, bright orange ramp to gather speed for the record-breaking 332-foot jump he successfully completed at the Indy 500 to set a new world record.

Link via AdWeek

It’s now called the “special flip” because “Special Greg” Powell was the one who accomplished it. This performance of Nitro Circus was recorded in Gosford, Australia. -via reddit

There are a few perks to my job as a mad scientist, and one of them, as I recently learned, is being able to tell my colleagues that I can’t attend their terribly important meeting because I’m going to set my hand on fire.

In the movies, people on fire stumble out of burning buildings all the time. If you look closely, however, you’ll notice that they are almost always fully dressed, and that they tend to keep moving. These are two important factors that make the stunt much easier.

Warning: do not try this at home. Link -via the Presurfer

This strange video is part story, part showreel, as it was produced, filmed, and performed by stunt doubles Sam Hargrave and Monique Ganderton. -via reddit

For seven hours, I was entertained and, I hope, moderately entertaining, as a parade of moms with strollers, grandparents with charges, art students from Santa Ana College, biology students from Fullerton College, friends, regular readers and media types wandered up.

If they had no idea a human being was on loan from the Register, the look on their faces said, “What the …” If they did know, they wanted to know, “Why the …”

“Three days, and you’re getting paid?” one woman asked, as I regaled onlookers with a variety of tricks that included blowing smoke rings and figuring out how to extract tiny bits of papaya from a hollow ball my keeper tossed at me.

“Well, uh, yeah, I guess I am getting paid,” I replied indignantly.

“Paid just to sit in a cage three days a week,” she said, shaking her head.

“Oh, no!” I said, finally realizing where she was going. “I’m not here three days every week!”

The zoo has a live webcam trained on their “human exhibit.” Link

(Image credit: Paul Bersebach, OC Register)

The next day the Navy was mortified to learn that the party they had escorted around the warship had not been Abyssinian dignitaries at all. Instead it had been a group of young, upper class pranksters who had blackened their faces, donned elaborate theatrical costumes, and then forged an official telegram in order to gain access to the ship. Their ringleader was a man named Horace de Vere Cole, but the entourage also included a young woman called Virginia Stephen who would later be better known as the writer Virginia Woolf.

By February 12 the British newspapers were full of the story of the stunt. “Bunga Bungle!” the Western Daily Mercury trumpeted. For a few days the Navy was the laughingstock of Britain. Sailors were greeted with cries of “Bunga, Bunga” wherever they went. One newspaper suggested that the Dreadnought change its name to the Abyssinian.

Link -via Metafilter

See a larger photograph of the event. Link

(YouTube Link)

When he gets bored with doing double backflips on his bike, skydiving without a chute, or inventing new sports like the Hydrojump, Travis Pastrana takes life easy with a casual drive in Long Beach, CA.  Watch him sail this rally car 269 feet with the precision landing of an experienced pilot.  Don’t miss his celebratory backflip into the water!

26-year-old Travis Pastrana set the world record for a rally car jump on New Year’s Eve, flying his Subaru 269 feet over water and landing on a barge in the harbor of Long Beach, California. The record blew away the old one set by Ken Block at 171 feet. Pastrana had to throw the car sideways and slam it against a wall at the end of the barge to stop the car, as he said the ramp was slick with dew. (Brian Lohnes)

]]> http://www.neatorama.com/2010/01/04/travis-pastrana-flies-a-car/feed/ 3 http://www.neatorama.com/2009/03/30/laws-of-physics-broken-for-watersliding-fun/ http://www.neatorama.com/2009/03/30/laws-of-physics-broken-for-watersliding-fun/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:59:54 +0000 Queuebot http://www.neatorama.com/2009/03/30/laws-of-physics-broken-for-watersliding-fun/

So here’s the scoop: I’m about to turn 30 – this friday in fact. Also: I love waterslides. Then I found a competition which, if I get enough votes, will send me around the world to the biggest watersldies there are. Best Present. Ever. This is my entry. Did it in an hour.

If you like it and fancy voting me into a state of splashy swooshy ecstasy, Vote for Slideyman in the Barclay Waterslide video competition. Just click the green thumbs up! Link 

Love and Waterslides,
Oscar

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Plinth.

The Triple Crown never seemed so two-sided. 

There are those who go to the races to see and be seen.  The rich and famous, and the classy entourage they bring with them. 

And then, there’s this crowd…sound is mildly NSFW.

Sure, it may not be the smartest behavior, but doesn’t this  spontaneous-looking game say something about culture?

Old: When life gives you lemons, make a lemonade. New: When Venice floods, go wakeboarding.

That’s exactly what Duncan Zuur did at St. Mark’s Square:

Duncan Zuur’s team pulled a compact, 20 horsepower motor winch from its hiding place and placed it under the square’s arches. One team member, clad in rubber boots, pulled the winchs cable about 120 metres across the square and pressed one end firmly into the hand of Duncan Zuur, who had taken the opportunity to get into his wakeboarding gear. Four elegant turns later, the event was over prompting by a standing ovation from an astounding crowd of tourists.

And luckily for Duncan, the police didn’t even notice.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via Newslite

Some people out there are fearless. Take this guy for instance; he doesn’t seem to be the least bit distracted by the vehicle that’s passing him and at the same time, being video taped. I wonder what possesses a person to do such a thing.

Video: LiveLeak