On April 1, 1985, readers of Sports Illustrated encountered an article by George Plimpton titled, “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch.” This legendary article detailed, a bit ridiculously, a tall and skinny Mets pitching prospect who could throw 168 miles an hour, was a practicing Buddhist monk, played the French horn, and seemed mostly unconcerned with baseball.
Obviously, this wasn’t real: It was an April Fool’s Day joke (though, it was pretty close to predicting Tim Lincecum). This was before every website started running witless “pranks,” and while the story was incredible Plimpton made it so lovingly real that people weren’t sure if it was a joke or not.