When was “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch” hoax first published?”
Sidd Finch was a fictional baseball player, the subject of the notorious article and April Fools’ Day hoax “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch” written by George Plimpton and first published in the April 1, 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated. Plimpton reported that Hayden “Sidd” (short for Siddhartha) Finch was a rookie baseball pitcher in training with the New York Mets. Finch, who had never played baseball before, was attempting to decide between a sports career and one playing the French horn. What was astonishing about Finch was that he could pitch a fastball at an amazing 168 mph, far above the record of a “mere” 103 mph, with pinpoint accuracy. He also wore only one shoe—a heavy hiker’s boot—when pitching. Finch grew up in an English orphanage and was adopted by an archaeologist who later died in a plane crash in Nepal. After briefly attending Harvard University, he went to Tibet to learn “yogic mastery of mind-body,” which was the source of his pitching prowess.
