The Daily Dose/October 28, 2018
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Editor’s Note: The following In The News segment was written before Game 4 of the World Series was completed. In order to show off Gaylon’s unsurpassed prognostication skills, we have left it as is.
In The News
Boy, the year’s World Series sure is boring.
Sure, it involves two of baseball’s oldest teams, the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the series is plodding along, tied 2-2 after four games and the home team has yet to lose and the third game bored everyone by taking over seven hours to play, the longest postseason game ever and just the ninth in major league history to go – yawn – at least seven hours.
We kid about the first part, but not about the following:
The game is hard to watch now.
After 100 years teams have finally gotten smart and adjusted their defenses to make it harder for pull hitters to earn their livings. Faced with an army of defenders on one side of the field batters, unable to sneak a grounder through the hole anymore, have adjusted, too, and have taken to trying to hit home runs every at-bat. It will remain this way until batters get smart and either start bunting or hitting the ball the other way. It’s resulted in a game that is a tough sell now. Attendance was down this year and World Series TV ratings are down, too, though they have been declining for a generation as late starts and late finishes mean that kids aren’t able to watch games through to the end and, as such, have no connection with the game, except as entertainment.
Their loss and baseball’s loss. Friday’s 18-inning classic should have had America buzzing but instead, America shrugged its collective shoulders and turned their attention to their fantasy football teams. Baseball losing its grip on America’s heartstrings is a tragedy. It’s reversible, but we can whine about that later.
Today At The Site
Sparrow and The Wife build a bookcase on today’s edition of The Diary of a Nobody, while at the hotel Sparrow rents a room with three queen beds and spends some time talking grizzly and brown bears and college football with Cliff.
I probably should’ve worn the overalls, and the official estimate of an hour-and-a-half is attainable only if you hired the Joseph and Jesus Carpentry Company to help out, but in the end it was done, a solid bookcase built.
The Thought for the Day continues to take some time off. Please enjoy an encore from earlier this year, Walt Disney talking about what is and what is not possible. Click here to read it.
Sometimes the biggest obstacle to our success looks us in the mirror every morning…
On This Date
In 1538 – St Thomas Aquino University is founded in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, then known as Hispaniola, the first university in the New World. It operated until 1823 when it closed when its students were ordered into military service during the Haitian Occupation.
In 2015 – Michael Conforto of the New York Mets goes 0-for-2 with an RBI in Game 1 of the World Series, becoming the third player to play in the World Series, the College World Series and the Little League World Series. The Mets lost Game 1 to Kansas City 5-4 in 14 innings. The other two players to play in all three world series were Jason Varitek and Ed Vosberg.
In 1972 – Chuck Berry’s only #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100, My Ding-a-Ling, tops the chart for its second and final week. The song, a crude, sophomoric novelty song with a tune based on a 19th-century folk song called Little Brown Jug, was originally recorded in 1952 by Dave Bartholemew, a member of both the Songwriters and Rock and Roll halls of fame. Considering his profound influence on popular music, Berry’s chart career was relatively modest: 14 Top 40 hits and six Top 10 hits. He also had three #1s on the R&B chart.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Frank Gore of the Miami Dolphins is the NFL’s all-time rushing yards leader amongst active players with 14,411 yards.
Today’s Stumper
What is now the oldest college or university in the Americas? – Answer next time!
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