1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader (43 page)

Some years it’s 2.5, if a jockey is really small.

Noel Botham, The Best Book of Useless Information Ever: A Few Thousand Other Things You Probably Don’t Need to Know (but Might as Well Find Out) (Perigee, 2007).

“Baseball-Related Deaths Uncommon,” Tulsa World, July 24, 2007,
www.tulsaworld.com
.

305

FACT :
The game “hot cockles” was very popular around Christmas in medieval times. It entailed
taking turns striking a blindfolded player
, who had to guess the name of the person who was doing the hitting.
I usually dread my mother-in-law’s Christmas visit, but that just changed. “Who wants to play a fun game?”

Noel Botham, The Best Book of Useless Information Ever: A Few Thousand Other Things You Probably Don’t Need to Know (but Might as Well Find Out) (Perigee, 2007).

306

FACT :
A NASCAR fan once sent
over half a million e-mails
to FOX network for airing a baseball game instead of a scheduled race.
FOX cared.

Noel Botham, The Best Book of Useless Information Ever: A Few Thousand Other Things You Probably Don’t Need to Know (but Might as Well Find Out) (Perigee, 2007).

307

FACT :
Roughly 20 percent of all traumatic brain injuries to children and adolescents in the United States are caused in some way
by sports and recreational activities
. Most occur during bicycling, skateboarding, or skating.
However, the number of injuries involving unicycles has increased 100 percent in the last decade, from one to two. But both were nerds, so who cares?

“Sports Injury Statistics,” Children’s Hospital Boston,
www.childrenshospital.org
.

308

FACT : About 3 million youth
aged fourteen and under are hurt annually during sports or recreational activities; more than 25 percent of those are treated in hospital emergency rooms. Most injuries occur as a result of falling down, being struck by an object, collisions, and overexertion during unorganized or informal sports activities.
The sooner a kid becomes acquainted with pain, the better.

“Sports Injury Statistics,” Children’s Hospital Boston,
www.childrenshospital.org
.

309

FACT :
Sixty percent of sports-related injuries
occur during practice
.
We call that a learning curve, and for things like rock-climbing, hang-gliding, and pole vaulting, it’s a drag.

“Sports Injury Statistics,” Children’s Hospital Boston,
www.childrenshospital.org
.

310

FACT :
The severity of sports-related injury
increases with age
.
The severity of a lot of things increases with age.

“Sports Injury Statistics,” Children’s Hospital Boston,
www.childrenshospital.org
.

311

FACT :
Before puberty, girls and boys suffer the same risk of sports injuries, but during puberty,
boys suffer more injuries
, and more severe injuries, than girls.
Probably because during puberty, boys are trying harder than ever to impress those girls.

“Sports Injury Statistics,” Children’s Hospital Boston,
www.childrenshospital.org
.