Chicago White Stockings, All-Stars once played baseball by the Sphinx

Chicago White Stockings played baseball by the Sphinx in 1889: Before hosting concerts and squash tournaments by the Giza Pyramids was commonplace, the Chicago White Stockings — forebearers of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs — came to play ball by the Sphinx in 1889 as part of a world tour meant to promote the sport. After finishing the game they were there for, the players scaled the Sphinx for this picture that “is perhaps their most famous portrait,” James E. Elfers writes in his book on the world tour. According to Elfers, they even took turns throwing a baseball at the monument “to see who could give the Sphinx a ‘black eye,’” — as if a missing nose wasn’t enough.