A Full Load

Funny Mark Grace story that I have to share. I was listening to the Dan Patrick show today. Now I don't really like Patrick - he's as full of himself as anyone on the planet, and he's a blatant name-dropper, but I had some time to kill driving back to work from a meeting.

Patrick was doing his show from Cubs spring training - usually, yet another reason to turn the channel - but I heard Mark Grace was going to be on and I've always enjoyed Grace's work (particularly the slump buster). But first, Patrick had Kerry Wood on the program. Strike three, right - turn the channel? Patrick's first question grabbed me, though - what was Wood's favorite Mark Grace story that can be told on the air?

Wood's story was fantastic. In brief, Wood said that the year before he got to the Cubs, Grace was at first base playing defense and tried to squeeze out some gas. Unfortunately, he got "more than he bargained for" according to Wood. He shat himself.

So he's playing first base with a load in his pants, and to make it worse, he leads off the next inning so he doesn't have time to go empty his drawers between innings. In all, Grace played a full inning plus with a dirty diaper. Grace later came on the program and confirmed the story.

Although I don't like the Cubs, you have to appreciate Mark Grace's contributions to baseball...