30 for 30 Shorts Season 1 Episode 34 Sidd Finch and the Tibetan Fastball

In the 1980s, baseball was all about speed: both teams and players were pushing for faster pitches from their pitchers, and fans wanted to see more impressive homeruns. However, one player seemed to defy all norms of conventional baseball.

His name was Sidd Finch, and he came out of nowhere with an incredible story: that he was born and raised in the remote regions of Tibet, where he had learned to pitch with incredible speed and accuracy using a unique "yoga-like" technique. He was also said to play the French horn and speak numerous languages.

The media went wild over this mysterious new player, and within weeks of his "discovery," pictures of him throwing 160-mph fastballs began to surface. The New York Mets announced that they had signed Finch to a contract, and everyone was eager to see him play.

But despite the hype, there was a catch to the Sidd Finch story: it was all a hoax.

In this episode of 30 for 30 Shorts, director Andrew Muscato explores the story of Sidd Finch and the Tibetan Fastball, tracing its origins back to the mind of a curious and creative character named George Plimpton. Plimpton was a writer and all-around raconteur who loved to play sports and push the boundaries of what was possible in the athletic world.

And so, in 1985, he cooked up the story of Sidd Finch as a kind of prank. Plimpton imagined a world where a young Tibetan monk could come to America and shock the baseball world with his incredible skills, all while remaining humble and mysterious. He even went so far as to create a backstory for Finch, complete with drawings and pictures that he had made himself.

Plimpton brought his idea to Sports Illustrated, who agreed to run the story on April Fools' Day. From there, it took on a life of its own, inspiring hundreds of copycat stories and even a made-for-TV movie.

In this episode, Muscato uses interviews, archival footage, and animations to tell the story of the Sidd Finch hoax and its lasting impact on baseball and popular culture. He talks to Plimpton's friends and collaborators, as well as experts in the fields of sports journalism and cultural anthropology, to explore why the story of a fake pitcher from Tibet resonated so deeply with so many people.

The documentary also delves into the strange intersection of sports and spirituality that the Sidd Finch hoax represented. Many of the reporters and fans who fell in love with the story were drawn to its mystical elements, seeing in Sidd Finch not just a talented athlete but a kind of prophet or sage. And even though the story was ultimately debunked, its legacy as a piece of sports mythology lives on.

Whether you're a baseball fan or just a lover of strange and fascinating stories, "Sidd Finch and the Tibetan Fastball" is an engaging and thought-provoking exploration of one of the greatest hoaxes in sports history.