The Daily Dose/May 30, 2024
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME…AGAIN: Yesterday we discussed the recent inclusion of statistics from the Negro Leagues into the major league (ML) record book.
About Time: It is neither possible – nor, frankly, particularly desirable – to hold the ML record book with greater reverence than we do and our reaction when this news was positive. Like whites in the National and American leagues, Blacks were playing against the best competition allowed by social custom and having the Negro Leagues recognized as a major league was long overdue.
The Morning After: There are a couple of quibbles, neither of which affect our support. One, the Negro Leagues seldom played more than 80 games in a season, while the major leagues have been playing at least 140 games since 1900. This affects rate statistics – those with a decimal point – because playing 80 games in a season is easier than playing the 162 games scheduled now and it is fair to wonder how 80-game per-game averages would hold up over a season that is twice as long.
And In This Corner: Something else we are whining about is the Negro League numbers aren’t complete, with researchers estimating they’ve chronicled a bit less than three-quarters of Negro League games.
Dry, Technical Matter: This is really a case of reverse whining though, because this does not affect the stats that were entered this week. They are not going to go down, only up, if and when the remaining games are chronicles.
Fly In The Ointment: This somewhat violates the statistical principle that everything that happens in a major league game is chronicled, but that’s all right, though, because it means that stats for Negro League players will only compound. We can live with that.
The Bottom Line: The above quibbles notwithstanding, we’re looking forward to getting our hands on the 2025 record books incorporating these changes. They should’ve been included ages ago, but we’re humans, not images on stained glass windows and sometimes things like this take time.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow may not be able to mow the lawn tomorrow. Today’s Diary.
It didn’t rain for all that long, but it came down pretty good, so who knows if we’ll be able to…
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 1854 – The Kansas/Nebraska Act becomes law after being signed by President Franklin Pierce. The law established Kansas and Nebraska as territories of the US, with residents deciding the legality of slavery. The act had the practical effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise, which had prohibited slavery north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude, a line which both territories were north of. Kansas became a state in 1861, Nebraska in 1867,
In 1894 – Bobby Lowe of the Boston Beaneaters establishes new major league records for most home runs and total bases in a game in a 20-11 win over the Cincinnati Reds in the second game of a doubleheader. Lowe hit four home runs, to break the record of three done five times previously and the mark has been tied 17 times since. Lowe also had a single, giving him 17 toral bases, breaking the record of 15 done by Guy Hecker in 1886. Lowe had gone 0-for-6 in the first game.
In 1970 – Ray Stevens is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of two consecutive weeks with Everything is Beautiful. It was Stevens’s fifth of eight Top 40 hits and his first of two #1 songs. The song also went to #1 in Australia and Canada, peaked at #6 in Great Britain, at #22 on Billboard’s country chart, and was Billboard’s 12th-biggest song of the year. It earned Stevens the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, his first of two Grammy awards.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
Mackenzie was a good guy, but he was a guy after all, not an image on a stained glass window.
William Irish
After-Dinner Story
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
Ralph Boston of the US broke the world long jump record six times. He died last year at 83.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
Who currently holds the major league record for most total bases in a game? – Answer next time!
