The Daily Dose/August 21, 2021
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
FORECAST: DRY TECHNICAL MATTER: Yesterday in our popular On This Date segment we noted that in 1919 Joe Wilhoit of the Wichita Jobbers had his 69-game hitting streak snapped, a mark which remains an all-time professional baseball record. We don’t usually highlight minor league accomplishments here, but one that is an all-time professional baseball record can generally pique our interest.
Batting Second, Dry, Technical Matter: It was a challenging item to write for two reasons: initially we could not find the score of the game anywhere and we came across several figures for Wilhoit’s batting average during the streak, anywhere from .505 to .515.
Oh, Jesus H: We were actually prepared to run the item without his batting average during the streak but the Official On This Date style book mandates we have the score of the game and we were obliged to refer to the old standby when you can’t find something from a trusted website: the newspaper.
Dry, Technical Matter: GO!: Once we renewed our account at newspapers.com it was easy and we quickly found an account of the game in the Wichita Beacon. Not only did they have the score, but they also had Wilhoit’s batting totals for the streak – which didn’t match anything we’d found online, which is OK because our experience has shown that newspapers are pretty accurate in these matters. Or, accurate enough for our purposes because while we enjoy researching crap like this like few others, we didn’t research every box score during the streak.
The Bottom Line: Uh, there really isn’t a bottom line here, except to point out the lengths we go to sometimes for this column because it’s important to us that you have something both accurate and interesting to read every day. Oh, and The Bottom Ten starts next Tuesday.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow continues to get his rest. Today’s Diary.
14.5 hours for the day – a wonderful total and perhaps a Friday record – and 43.0 hours for the week, another fine total heading into the week-ending Saturday Sleep Session (SSS).
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On This Date
The long march to today.
In 1883 – What would become the Mayo Clinic is formed in the aftermath of a tornado in the area of Rochester, Minnesota. The tornado killed at least 37 people and injured more than 200 and due to there not being a hospital in the area a local dance hall was set up to treat the injured. The makeshift hospital was staffed by local doctors William Mayo, his sons William and Charles and a nurse from a local religious order. Today the Mayo Clinic also has major hospitals in California, Arizona and Florida and remains one of the world’s most respected hospital systems.
In 2016 – The United States wins the men’s Olympic basketball gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games, defeating Serbia 96-66. The United States went 8-0 in the tournament, the third consecutive Olympics they’d gone undefeated in. It was the third consecutive gold medal for the Americans and their 14th overall. The US added their 15th men’s basketball gold medal earlier this month at the Beijing Games.
In 1976 – Mickey Gilley is at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Hot Country Singles chart – for the only week with Bring It On Home To Me. It was the sixth of 16 #1 country songs for Gilley and his seventh of 32 Top 10 country hits. The song also went #1 country in Canada and peaked at #1 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart. The song was originally a 1962 hit for Sam Cooke – #2 soul, #13 Hot 100 – and remains one of the few songs to chart on all three major Billboard singles charts.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
The principle of democracy is freedom, the principle of war is discipline; each requires the absence of the other.
Will Durant
The Story of Civilization, Vol. III: Caesar to Christ
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
The only professional baseball player besides Joe Wilhoit to have a hitting streak of at least 60 consecutive games was Joe Dimaggio, who hit in 61 consecutive games for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League in 1933.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
How many different countries has the US defeated in Olympic gold medal basketball games? – Answer next time!
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