Fishing Rule #2546: Don't Wear Rings In The Boat

Reading the Orlando Sentinel this weekend, I came across a feature piece on Chuck Churn, who pitched with the Dodgers in 1959, earning a World Series title. Sure, his post-season ERA was 27.00 (0.2 IP, 2 ER in one World Series appearance). But worse than that is he lost his World Series ring while fishing in Florida:

Chuck Churn made a world-class blunder a few years after winning the World Series. He lost the 1959 World Series ring he won with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Sarasota Bay off Longboat Key while fishing.

The incident occurred during spring training in 1963, when Churn was fishing in a small craft accompanied by Boston Red Sox coach Ed Popowski and Baltimore Orioles trainer Ralph Salvon.

"I was taking off the ring to put it in my pocket for safekeeping when I accidentally flipped it into the water," Churn recounted.

Though the water was shallow at that point of the bay, there were strong currents, and efforts to retrieve the treasured gold ring failed.

"I hired a professional diver and offered a $1,000 reward," he said. "But the weather was miserable: rainy and cold. The diver and his class of student divers weren't able to start their search for almost a week."

Churn eventually had a replica made of his Series ring but of far less value than the original.

A cautionary tale for us all (or at least, those of us who fish), I suppose. But it's only a material object; the memories of his title, and his baseball career, endure.

photo: Tom Benitez/Orlando Sentinel