Educating Twitter: The Murphy-Lemon Debate

I come from hearty stock. Ship builders, landscapers, glass cutters, along with a few soldiers and pipe fitters and miners. People from Ireland and Scotland who came to America through Canada and Maine before settling in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. People who shoveled a lot of snow and battled through lung ailments.

People who wear shorts in the winter.

Yeah, I’m that guy you see around Thanksgiving or even Christmas, out in his yard with a sweatshirt on, still wearing shorts because I genuinely think my legs are impervious to cold weather. Well, within limits. You won’t see me rocking cargo shorts on Groundhog Day, that would be nuts.

The point is that I wouldn’t have much of a problem wearing those ridiculous shorts the Chicago White Sox sported in 1976. My legs could handle the strawberries and scrapes, and I most certainly wouldn’t feel any embarrassment. In fact, I always thought the worst part of those uniforms was actually the top, with its weird wide collar.

At this point, you might be wondering why I’m going down this particular road. What on Earth do my legs have to do with baseball history?