The Baseball Legend You've Never Heard Of

In the wide-eyed summer of 1954, that time of Willie Mays and Rocky Marciano and Brown v. Board of Education and the miracle of color television—there was a larger-than-life ballplayer in the Pecos River Valley of New Mexico named Joe Bauman. Nobody called him that. It was an era of nicknames, and they called him Boomin' Bauman and Sluggin' Joe, Jarring Joe and Joltin' Joe and Jumbo Joe, the Man Mountain, the Mammoth Man, the Southpaw Swatter, the Roswell Rocketeer, and the Economy-Sized First Sacker. The nickname that stuck was Ponderous Joe Bauman.

View in Browser  SHOP EXCLUSIVE SUBSCRIBE Ponderous Joe Goes Deep: The Inside Story of Baseball's Most Unknown Slugger In the wide-eyed summer of 1954, that time of Willie Mays and Rocky Marciano and Brown v. Board of Education and the miracle of color television—there was a larger-than-life ballplayer in the Pecos River Valley of New Mexico named Joe Bauman. Nobody called him that. It was an era of nicknames, and they called him Boomin' Bauman and Sluggin' Joe, Jarring Joe and Joltin' Joe and Jumbo Joe, the Man Mountain, the Mammoth Man, the Southpaw Swatter, the Roswell Rocketeer, and the Economy-Sized First Sacker. The nickname that stuck was Ponderous Joe Bauman. Read More Section 3 of the 14th Amendment Has Trump and His Hordes Sweating Bullets Respected constitutional scholars from both sides of the political spectrum have said disqualifying him on these grounds may well be a constitutional imperative. Read More Scenes from the Burning Man Flood More than 70,000 people were trapped at the annual celebration—here's what it looked like. Read More A Conspiracy in Brentwood The drop ran eighty feet. The cliff was loose dirt and no footholds. We hauled shitbird up to the edge and showed him the view. The Pasadena Freeway, southbound. Due north of the Chavez Ravine exit and downtown L.A. Steady traffic clocking through at 65-plus. Shitbird was Richard Douglas Danforth/white male American/ approximate age 36. No green sheet, no wants, no warrants. He's a bleak cat with a pachuco haircut and Sir Guy shirt. I held his right arm. Max Herman held his left arm. Red Stromwall jammed his head down and force-fed him the view. Freddy O. and the Hat Squad. We're at it again. Bill Parker says, "Jump." We say, "How high?" It's a kidnap job tonight. Read More A Full Roundup Of All the Menswear Deals Happening This Weekend New season, new wardrobe. But not at full price. Read More The 10 Best Solar Watches That Require Little to No Effort All you have to do is wear it. Read More How Emma Seligman Pulled Off This Year's Best—and Bloodiest—Comedy It wasn't until Emma Seligman found themself with a budget for car bombs and mascot penises that the gravity of Bottoms, their sophomore sex comedy, finally set in. Six years prior, the gags had only lived as ideas on the whiteboard of an NYU basement. There, Seligman and their co-writer, Rachel Sennott, mapped out their film school dreams: a multimillion-dollar blockbuster directed by Seligman, starring Sennott and their fellow NYU classmate, Ayo Edebiri. The difference between the trio and most other film school kids imagining similar utopias? They made it happen. When I talk to Seligman over Zoom, days before Bottoms's August 25 premiere, it's clear that the now-28-year-old director—along with Edebiri and Sennott—have treated their craft like it was work long before they were getting paid for it. Read More Follow Us Unsubscribe | Privacy Notice/Notice at Collection esquire.com ©2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019