I usually like to know all the facts. I don’t like to believe in myths or legends. I want cold, hard facts.

In the case of former major league pitcher “Black” Jack McDowell and The Baseball Project‘s song “The Yankee Flipper,” I wish I had stayed ignorant.

A quick summary: the song chronicles a night of drinking with McDowell, Mike Mills, Smithereens drummer Dennis Diken and Scott McCaughey, who provides lead vocals for the song. The night of partying allegedly preceded McDowell giving a full Yankee Stadium the finger after a poor performance.

One one of those days where I just got a little too excited about reading up on new information, I found a blog McDowell does for a Chicago newspaper. One entry is called “Ask Black Jack.” He confirms the night of drinking happened after R.E.M. played at Madison Square Garden in June 1995, but implies that its connection to the Yankee Flipper incident isn’t quite so true.

So I looked up his Wikipedia page and discovered that he flipped off the crowd on July 18, 1995. The band had a break from touring at the time because Mills had his appendix out. There’s no way the drinking could have caused the finger.

I don’t know if I can go on.