During Charlie Manuel's regular pregame powwow with reporters this afternoon, the topic of ballplayers with the best arm arose. Mark Whiten, Dave Parker, and Ichiro were all mentioned.
"Roger Maris had a good arm," Manuel said.
Charlie was then asked if he ever remembered anyone in particular throwing him out going from first to third.
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"Naw, I was so fast," Charlie joked.
This prompted one writer to break out his iPhone and Google players throughout history with the most outfield assists.
Charlie saw the iPhone and suggested while the writer was Googling meaningless baseball stats, why not also look up Virginia State Marble Championship results from… oh… 1955 or 1956 or so.
According to Manuel, he won the Virginia State Championship in Marbles as a sixth grader. Apparently it rained that day, and instead of playing on grass outdoors as usual, the contest was moved inside and was played on concrete, a surface Charlie had never played on before.
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Didn't matter. Winners win no matter the circumstances.
And I don't believe anyone followed up by asking Charlie if he knew where his marbles currently were.
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We attempted to Google the results of the State Championship of Marbles in Virginia but our limited research proved unfruitful. If you have any information on marble champions, we'd love to hear it.