The Record

Edward Payson Weston became famous in 1861, after he made a bet that he would walk from Boston to Washington D.C. if Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election—for the next five decades “The Pedestrian” became well-known for his endurance walking feats, and for popularizing competitive walking.

Grantland Rice—sportswriter and poet–of The New York Tribune, paid tribute to Weston in one of his baseball poems in 1916:

Grantland Rice

The Science of Batting

There are more than many ways

To teach a bloke to bat;

To teach a bloke the way to swing

And make his average fat

But of the many styles

That bring a thrill or throb,

One always plays it fairly safe

To hit the ball like Cobb

Cobb

The Science of Pitching

There are also many ways

To pitch a baseball right;

To hold the hits to three or four

And bag a winning fight.

And yet the safest is.

Bereft of any fuzz,

To put the same stuff on the ball

That Walter Johnson Does

Walter Johnson

The Record

Weston has walked for many a mile

Giving all records a wrench;

But he never struck out and had to walk

From the home plate back to the bench.

Weston

Tags: Edward Payson Weston, Grantland Rice, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson