[2] Maxwell described a baseball game where Oyler, as a shortstop for the Minneapolis Millers, was crouched in the batters' box in the bottom of the ninth inning and ducked to avoid a high pitch thrown at his head.

[2] The ball hit Oyler's bat, still resting on his shoulder, and became stuck in approximately 24 inches of mud in front of home plate.

[3] Another version of the story, as told by Halsey Hall, had Oyler chopping at a low pitch and sticking the ball into the mud 2 feet from home plate.

[4] Baseball historian Stew Thornley is skeptical of the story of Oyler's home run, pointing out there was no contemporary news report which described the incident.

[6] The story was the subject of a book of baseball lore by Michael G. Bryson called The Twenty-Four-Inch Home Run.