The Daily Dose/October 16, 2021
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
HEY BATTER, BATTER…SWING…OR NOT: It was bound to happen sooner or later, a major league baseball playoff series ending on a controversial check-swing call by a base umpire. It happened Thursday in Game 5 of the Dodgers/Giants series: the last out was a check-swing ruled strike three by first base umpire Gabe Morales. It was the last out in a game won by the Dodgers and the win sent them to the National League Championship Series.
The general consensus amongst those who did not have to make the right then was that Morales was wrong.
Warm, Personal Remembrance: We’ve made this call a lot, both behind the plate at on the bases and swings are like pornography and other works of art: you know them when you see them. I tended to give the benefit of the doubt to the batter, but other umpires were different. Sue us. Or, better yet, go umpire yourself and see how much fun these calls can be.
Dry, Technical Matter: For years this call was made by the plate umpire. Then TV announcers started yapping about things like wrists breaking and bat heads crossing the plate – elements not mentioned in the rule book – and baseball caved in and allowed appeals to the first or third base umpire.
Fly In The Ointment: Almost interesting is the fact the rule book does not define a swing, the only real criteria is the unwritten one of whether or not you thought the batter attempted to hit the baseball.
But We Digress: Morales has been making this call in professional baseball games for years and has long known what he thinks is and is not a swing. He had to make it right then and without the benefit of consulting Twitter on the matter and from over 100 feet away to boot.
The Bottom Line: You oblige umpires to make calls from a hundred feet away and you’re going to get this from time to time. Could you imagine a basketball official making a call from the other end of the court or a back judge making a roughing the quarterback call? Of course you couldn’t. Baseball should never have buckled to the pressure that demanded an appeal for half-swings. We speak from experience: the plate umpire is in the best position to make this call.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow goes to the college dining hall for lunch. Today’s Diary.
ALL YOU CAN EAT CORN DOGS!!!…SWEET MOTHER OF CHRIST!!!…I AM NOT MAKING THAT UP!!!
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On This Date
The long march to today.
In 1946 – Ten of the twelve Nazis convicted at the Nuremberg Trials and sentenced to death are executed in a gymnasium adjacent to the prison they were being held in. 24 Nazis had originally been indicted on four charges, though some ended up not being charged, or they were acquitted or convicted and issued lesser sentences. The two who were not executed were Martin Borman, who had been convicted in absentia and was who was actually already dead and Hermann Goring who, peeved he was going to be hanged and not shot, had killed himself earlier in the evening.
In 1968 – Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists while The Star-Spangled Banner is played during the medal ceremony for the 200-meters at the Mexico City Olympics, an event History now refers to as the Black Power Salute. Australian Peter Norman joins the protest, wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights patch on his sweatsuit. For their efforts, Smith and Carlos are kicked out of the Games while Norman was not selected for the 1972 Olympics despite having a qualifying 200-meter time and when Norman died in 2006 Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at his funeral. The famous photograph of the protest was taken by John Dominis of Life magazine.
In 1961 – Ray Charles is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the second and final consecutive week with Hit the Road Jack. The song also went to #1 in New Zealand, peaked at #6 in Great Britain and was also in its third of five consecutive weeks at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart. It was second of three Hot 100 #1s for Charles and was his seventh of eleven #1 soul hits. The female lead was sung by Margie Hendrix, a member of the Raelettes, Charles’s backup singers.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
I spent the whole day without food, the whole night without sleep…My mind was a perfect blank…I understood nothing at all. That is why I think it is better to study real things in a real world.
Gore Vidal
Creation
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
The two men born in what is now China to precede Lang Liwei into space were Americans Taylor Wang (Shanghai, space shuttle mission STS-51-B) and William Anders (Hong Kong, Apollo 8).
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
How many other nations besides the US have won gold medals in the Olympic men’s 200 meters? – Answer next time!
