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From the Fortune Teller’s Tent to the Big Leagues: The Incredible Story of Charles Faust and His Time with the New York Giants
Based on nothing more than a prediction, Faust spent several years chasing a baseball dream that ended with him on an MLB mound
The pursuit of dreams can be a funny business. If you believe in something strongly enough and put in the effort, there are few things that are truly impossible. More than a century ago, a visit to a county fair fortune teller combined with possible escalating mental illness helped convince simple Midwesterner without a speck of athletic ability that he was destined to become a major league baseball player and help the powerful New York Giants win a pennant. Despite the extraordinarily unusual circumstances, he achieved what he set out to do, spending parts of several years with the team, pitching in two games, helping them win three consecutive pennants and mightily frustrating them along the way. This wasn’t a construct of Hollywood. It was the real life of Charles Victor (Victory) Faust.
Faust was born on October 9, 1880, as the first of six children to John and Eva Faust in Marion, Kansas — a thriving community of 857. The Fausts had emigrated from Germany and settled on a modest farm where they…
