Ping Bodie

Who was Ping Bodie?

Frank Stephen Bodie, born Francesco Stephano Pezzolo, was a center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Athletics and New York Yankees. Bodie batted and threw right-handed. He was born in San Francisco, California.

One of the most feared sluggers in the 1910s, Bodie was nicknamed "Ping" for the sound made when his fifty-two-ounce bat crashed into the "dead" ball of his era. Another nickname given to him was "The Wonderful Bop." He took the surname Bodie from the California town he once lived in.

It said that Bodie provided much of the inspiration for Ring Lardner's creation of the famous baseball fictional series You Know Me, Al. Appearing originally in the Saturday Evening Post, the piece was written in the form of letters written by a bush league baseball player to a friend back home.