There are some great publications on the humorous aspects of baseball. Probably no funnier than delivered by those who played or were directly involved in the game. Ron Luciano's "The Umpire Strikes Back", Garagiola's. "Baseball is a Funny Game", Bouton's "Ball Four", Uecker's "Catcher In the Wry"----all masterpieces. I'm sure there has been posts with excerpts of more memorable passages in pages past, but let's do it again. Because we love the game, love to laugh, and make a deeper connection----------------------------

What Joe Morgan teaches us in 'Ball Four'

Apropos of nothing save for glorious baseball itself, let us remember what Joe Morgan, the former color commentator on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball and one of the greatest second basemen ever to play the game, taught us, in the provocative pages of Jim Bouton's Ball Four, about the two types of curveballs. Straight from page 344 of the World Publishing 1970 hardcover edition:

Norm Miller was doing the broadcast bit in the fourth inning when Joe Morgan came back to the dugout after missing a big curveball for strike three.

"Joe, Joe Morgan, may I have a word with you?"

"Sure, Norm, how's it going?"

"Fine, Joe, fine. We wanted to ask you about that pitch you missed. What was it?"

"Norm, that was a m------------ curve."

"Can you tell our listeners, Joe, what's the difference between a regular curve and a m------------ curve?"

"Well, Norm, your regular curve has a lot of spin on it and you can recognize it real early. It breaks down a little bit, and out. Now, your m-----------, that's different. It comes in harder, looks like a fastball. Then all of a sudden it rolls off the top of the table and before you know it, it's m------------ strike three."

"Thank you very much, Joe Morgan."

I laughed for the first time today. We have the entire house in chaos, we have to have the whole bathroom redone to prevent old rusted pipes from destroying the whole building, plus work deadlines etc. So this was a welcome relief.

That might be the funniest and most accurate thing Joe Morgan has ever said. This was a great way to start my day, especially since I have not had hot water for a week and all of my WIS teams are sputtering about.

Moe Drabowsky (1935-2006)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/drabomo01.shtml

They called him The Prince of Pranks and, for four years in Baltimore, Moe Drabowsky conjured up the high jinx that duped teammates and opponents alike.
During the ‘66 season, Moe pulled off one of his best-known pranks. On May 27, in the second inning of a game against his former teammates in Kansas City, Drabowsky called the Athletics bullpen, imitated KC manager Alvin Dark, and ordered that Lew Krausse begin warming up. A few minutes later, Drabowsky called again and ordered Krausse to sit down again. Finally, on the third call, Drabowsky’s voice was recognized.
Or putting live mice in players' shoes, goldfish in the visitors' water cooler and a lit cherry bomb in Boog Powell's bathroom stall.
He couldn’t resist taking aim at another target, however: Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who was reportedly the victim of one of Drabowsky’s most elaborate hotfoot attempts. Drabowsky ran a trail of lighter fluid all the way from the trainer’s room to a match slipped into the sole of Kuhn’s shoe as he sat in the clubhouse before one of the games. “You never saw a shoe come off so fast in your life,” Drabowsky said.

Fans weren't immune to his tomfoolery.
In Milwaukee's County Stadium, Drabowsky tied a $10 bill to a string and placed the bill on a ramp near the bullpen. "Pretty soon, here comes a guy returning to his seat carrying six Cokes in one hand and a bag of popcorn in the other," he said. "When he sees the bill, he crouches down in a catcher's position to pick it up, we jerk the string, he jumps back and everything spills all over the place."

The offseason didn't slow the pranks.
"In the winter, I'd call some of the A's, pretending I was [owner] Charlie Finley," Drabowsky said. "I asked [infielder] Wayne Causey, 'Now, what's wrong with your contract?' And he said, 'Well, Mr. Finley, $13,500 isn't enough. I want $16,000.' And I said, 'You got it,' and hung up."

This is a long read article <link> but this photo needs the set-up, and the sad and hilarious story is priceless!
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27425987/guy-ball-crotch-story-funniest-baseball-card-ever-made

After being snubbed from the All-Star game by Boston manager Darrell Johnson, Baltimore's Jim Palmer claimed he was misquoted for calling Johnson an idiot. "I did not call Johnson an idiot. Someone else did and I just agreed," Palmer said.

An interviewer started to ask Yogi Berra about his two hits from the previous night when Berra corrected him and said he had three hits. The interviewer apologized. "I checked the paper and the box score said you had two hits. The third must have been a typographical error." "Hell, no," Berra replied. "It was clean single to left."

A reporter wanted to know where Alex Johnson's power surge came from. "Last year, you hit two homers and this year you have seven. What's the difference?" "Five," Johnson replied.

A rookie sat next to his manager and watched Roger Maris gun down a runner trying to go from first to third.
"Kid, you won't see a throw like that again in a million years."
Three innings later, Maris duplicated the feat. The rookie turned to the manager and said, "Time sure flies up here in the Majors."

Before a series, St. Louis manager Frankie Frisch instructed his pitching staff to avoid throwing Brooklyn's Tony Cuccinello a fastball.
Dizzy Dean objected. "He can't hit my fastball."
He begged Frisch to let him throw Cuccinello a fastball. Frisch refused. Finally, with the game in hand, he relented. Dean threw Cuccinello a fastball. Cuccinello hit it out of the park. Dean turned to Frisch. "By gosh, Frankie. You were right for once."