Major League Baseball spring training camps are laid back compared to most professional environments.

Many hilarious, fun and absurd stories have been made public, over the years.

The regular season spans the country and unfolds over six months of the year, and barely matches the entertainment that the training camps in Arizona and Florida provide in six short weeks!

Just to show the spring silliness is not a modern phenomenon, some 100 years ago Hughie Jennings, a player-manager with the Detroit Tigers did something straight out of a Looney-Toons cartoon. His intention was to cool off in a local pool following an exhibition against the New York Giants. He dove in without hesitation, only to come to the painful realization that the pool had been emptied! What happened to looking before leaping?

I’d like to know who among today’s stars is as tough as former New York Met Frank Thomas? The three-time All-Star is remembered for his barehanded catching ability. He never needed a glove to cushion his palm, regardless of the velocity on an incoming throw. Future Hall of Famer Willie Mays was skeptical in the 1962 preseason and challenged Thomas’ reputation. Mays put $100 on the line before firing from 60 feet 6 inches away. Thomas caught the baseball cleanly.

Mays revised his bet, lowering it to $10 and requesting an opportunity to warm up beforehand. Being a good sport, Thomas permitted the changes. Same result, though.

Outfielder Jay Johnstone was admittedly fed up with drug tests in Philadelphia Phillies camp in 1976 – something taken very seriously  indeed, today. But that day Johnstone decided to lighten the mood by replacing his urine sample with apple juice of a similar shade.

The woman accepting the sample was immediately suspicious. So Johnstone drank it in front of her!

But perhaps the most complex baseball prank was pulled on Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Kyle Kendrick: he was told that he was being traded to Japan’s Yomiuri Giants by manager Charlie Manuel, in February 2008. Kendrick even signed paperwork to make the deal “official” and was told to pack up his belongings for a flight the following morning. Several reporters met him in the locker room to get his reaction to the truth, where teammate Brett Myers finally put an end to the torture. The rest is Youtube history.