Everyone sure does love flipping the bird. Even little kids love it. But it seems that we can trace the first known picture of someone flipping the bird all the way back to 1886.
Major League Baseball pitcher Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn of the Boston Beaneaters (bring back the Beaneaters!) appears to flip the bird in this 1886 team photo.
Here it is highlighted:
And now a closeup of “Old Hoss” doing what he does best.
Some people have suggested that it looks like a cigar, which it does. However, an excerpt in Edward Achorn’s book “Fifty-nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had…” seems to confirm that it’s the finger:
“Charlie dutifully rested his right hand on the shoulder of the teammate sitting in front of him. But at the last minute, wearing a straight face…he lifted his left hand above his teammate’s other shoulder, firmly thrust out his middle finger, and held it rock steady so that it would remain sharp and clear in the captured image….”
Nice going, Charlie. And he seemed to do the same thing the following year:
Hell yeah.
Via Twenty Two Words
These will go down in history, too: The Very Best Middle Fingers Ever Given To The World
