Strange Sports Stories #1 is an issue of the series Strange Sports Stories (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1973.
Synopsis for "To Beat the Devil"
A baseball team is plummeting to their deaths in an airplane when the devil appears. He offers to save everyone if they agree to play him in a baseball game. The Meteor team plays against the devil as he plays all positions by himself. Ultimately, they make the devil overextend himself because he cannot be on two bases at a time. The Meteors win and the devil sends them a congratulatory note at the end.
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Synopsis for "A Tall Tale of Tenpins!"
Rip Van Wynne is a teenage boy that struggles with bowling skills in front of his friends who take delight in making fun of him. Even his date Amy can bowl better. The discouraged boy walks home one night. He wanders by the Hudson River into the beautiful countryside and he notices a sign on a tree which indicates that this was the site of Washington Irving’s famous tale of Rip Van Winkle. He is then overtaken by a sudden storm and he realizes that he is lost. He tries to make a run for the river to find his bearings but he trips and falls down a gulley. As his body comes to a rest he is suddenly faced with an oncoming bowling ball that is about to strike his face but mysteriously comes to a jolting halt. The boy looks up and is surprised to see a collection of small bearded men playing a game of bowling. The men welcome the chance to converse with their young visitor. One of them introduces himself as Captain Henry Hudson, the man who navigated the Hudson river hundreds of year ago. The strange little men further explain that they get together every twenty years to celebrate Captain Hudsons achievement by playing a game of skittles ninepins. The boy then reveals that his name Is Rip Van Wynne. The little men grow excited when they speculate that the boy might be a descendent of their old friend Rip Van Winkle. They offer Rip any assistance that he might need and the boy immediately asks them to teach him how to bowl. They give him hours of instruction until the boy develops a good amount of skill. They then tell Rip that he has done a good job but that he must never bowl a perfect game since that would be a sign of vanity. The boy leaves and goes on his way when he suddenly runs into a low hanging branch and he is knocked out. He awakes to find himself surrounded by his friends who had been out looking for him. They inform him that he probably got knocked out by the low hanging branch and Rip assumes that his experiences had all been nothing but a dream. The group of friends then spot the sign by the tree stating that this was the site of Rip Van Winkles famous tale. Rip immediately takes off and tries his luck at the bowling alley. He is amazed at his bowling skills and is well on his way to bowling a perfect game. On his last throw, the bowling ball heads straight for the pins but is suddenly deflected by Captain Hudson who kicks the ball to one side and then disappears. As he departs, the captain proclaims that Rip Van Wynne is guilty of Vanity. The moral of the story being that if you grow too big for your boots then a kick in the right place sometimes helps.
Appearing in "A Tall Tale of Tenpins!"
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