Joe Berton was just another dedicated teacher at Percy Julian Middle School 40 years back. And then he became involved in the grand and lovely April Fool’s hoax that brought the world Sidd Finch, a former Tibetan monk who could hurl a baseball 168 mph.
The story, headlined “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch,” was penned by the legendary George Plimpton. It was published that April 1, 1985 in Sports Illustrated. In the story, Finch arrived to wonderment in the Mets spring training camp. And that is the hook for the 2025 revival of this tall tale. Just after this year’s April Fool’s Day, Berton, aka Sidd, arrived to his first Mets home game at Citi Field. He got the whole Mets jersey-and-a-press-conference treatment, according to the New York Post.
The backstory was that Finch, full name Siddhartha Finch, learned to throw so hard while chasing snow leopards away from yak herds at the monastery. Not surprisingly he was also expert at playing the French horn. And he pitched wearing just one shoe.
In reality, Berton was an art teacher at Percy Julian. He had a friend who was a photographer assigned to shoot the images for the story and he thought the lanky Berton had just the right look for Siddhartha Finch.
And the easy fun of the Sidd Finch saga just rolls on.
