Foul language in baseball, circa 1898
 

This is an auction house site- read the description of the item, then click on the images of the piece on display, especially the bottom half.

http://s210975194.onlinehome.us/blog/?p=41

So much for thinking people were more polite back then... :)

Baseball players curse??? I can't believe it!

It's not the cursing that surprised me (I'm not THAT naive. :) ); it's the wording of the cursing I wouldn't have expected... somehow, I look at the old photos of players back then it doesn't quite square with "you c*nt-lapping dog!" Proving the more things change, yadda yadda yadda.

I wonder how much that particular piece of baseball history will go for.

I guess the guy probably wasn't misquoted or taken out of context

Hee hee hee.

It would have had to have been a whole lot of guys taken out of context! If you didn't click on the link and read the original piece yet, do-- it's pretty amusing- all that denser, turn-of-the-last-century language juxtaposed against the language being used by the players quoted.

The best part of the description is when the auction house notes the piece probably wouldn't be on the cover of the next catalog.

Now that was an eye-opener! Do you believe the language that these sons-a-bitches used back then?

why should anyone be surprised that a generation who wrote so eloquently would also swear with style?

you didn't invent f ucking either.

Some excellent stuff there, I'll have to add a few of those to my repertoire.