Paul Goldschmidt ‘fun’ fact at Rickwood Field sets researchers back decades

Whether at one of 30 MLB ballparks, Busch Stadium included, or Thursday night's trip to historic Rickwood Field, baseball fans are accustomed to seeing Fun Facts about major league players on the scoreboards and jumbotrons. St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, however, might've wanted to touch base with the scoreboard operator at Rickwood Field.

There are a lot of things that could be considered fun or, at the very least, intriguing when it comes to Goldschmidt. He's one of only seven active MLB players to be born in Delaware. He's the Texas State Bobcats career record-holder for home runs (36) and RBI (179). He earned a college degree online while beginning his MLB career. He purchased a house in Florida from pro golfer Louis Oosthuizen.

All of that's pretty interesting, right? So the scoreboard operator probably should've gone with one of those. Instead, he chose the least fun fact and perhaps the most commonly known "fun fact" possible: Paul Goldschmidt's nickname is "Goldy".

Paul Goldschmidt's nickname is Goldy and that's apparently a 'fun fact'

Normally by this point of a piece, I would've already referred to him as Goldy. It's honestly (probably) more common when baseball fans are talking about Goldschmidt to call him by that well-known nickname than his actual name. But sure, that's a super fun fact.

All of those fun facts -- or at least something much closer to fun facts than what we saw in Birmingham -- were readily available on Wikipedia. It didn't take much research at all. In fact, I'm not even sure that you could call it research. And yet, the researcher actually putting fun facts on the scoreboard for the fans in attendance apparently couldn't muster that.

That's not me pining or lobbying to be a scoreboard operator putting these facts up for fans to enjoy. However, it is asking for a little more than the bare minimum in situations such as this, which is probably more than what we got with the "Goldy" fact.

As for Goldy's performance in Thursday night's historic game honoring the Negro Leagues, though, he started off the game going 1-for-3 in what has been a tough season for the former MVP with the Cardinals.