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American Masters
George Plimpton's Famous April Fool's Day Joke
For the April 1, 1985, issue of Sports Illustrated, George Plimpton profiled Sidd Finch, an incredible rookie baseball pitcher for The New York Mets. The story was too good to be true, and Plimpton asked his then personal assistant at The Paris Review, the now famous author Jonathan Dee, to keep the joke alive while Plimpton was traveling. Dee recalls the hoax in this web exclusive from Plimpton!
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