As America's pastime, baseball and its moments are etched into the memories of many fans. From Willie Mays' unbelievable over-the-shoulder catch to Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's home run record, professional baseball is brimming with moments that built legacies.
But those legacies don't always belong to baseball players.
Believe It or Not!, the basepaths and batter's boxes were the backdrop of where Ripley's Believe It or Not! founder Robert Ripley began his career in media and entertainment. Yes, Ripley's rise as America's purveyor of oddities and curiosities emerged from humble beginnings as a baseball cartoonist, but that was after his dream of playing in The Show was dashed.
After stints as a cartoonist with The San Francisco Bulletin and The San Francisco Chronicle, Ripley headed east to New York City.
Covering his beloved New York Giants for The New York Globe during spring training in 1913, the coaching staff caught wind of Ripley's earlier foray as a semi-professional baseball player. Invited to participate in workouts as a pitcher, he would, unfortunately, fracture his arm, erasing his hopes of suiting up as a professional baseball player and serving as a catalyst to chart his career path as a full-time cartoonist.
He did not know it at the time, but that fateful day set in motion a series of events that would lead to the creation of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
With his aspirations of professional baseball firmly in the rearview, Robert Ripley dove headfirst into exploring different corners of the world and drawing cartoons. He completed his first trip around the world in 1922, where he gained an affinity for the interesting and exotic. No matter which area of the globe he trekked, Ripley would never stray far from his true love: sports.
He published Spalding’s Official Handball Guide in 1925, a book that detailed the game for which he would become New York’s state champion in 1926.
Robert Ripley’s exploits and published cartoons garnered the attention of one William Randolph Hearst, founder of the Hearst media empire. Intrigued by Ripley’s love of the bizarre and unusual and sold on his cartoon work, Hearst syndicated the Believe It or Not! series in his stable of 360 newspapers across the country.
This syndication, which also was translated into 17 different languages, is what changed Robert Ripley from a sports cartoonist and aspiring professional baseball player into the pioneer we know him as today.
While Robert Ripley would never suit up for the New York Giants, he would parlay his artistic talents and curiosity for the unexplored and unreported into the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! that we know and love today. Believe It or Not!, sometimes a dream unrealized reveals a dream unimagined.
