The Daily Dose/April 23, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Yesterday an item in the popular On This Date segment noted that on April 22, 1876 the National League played its first game. Some regard this as the birth of major league baseball. Some don’t.
For those who don’t know, from 1871-75 there was another professional baseball league, the National Association and usually their status as a minor league was not subject to debate, but evidently there’s no shortage of halfwit Internet columnists around that are making an issue of this and we are reading more and more nonsense about how, yes, the NA was a major whose records should be included in the major league record book.
No, they shouldn’t. Certainly, yes, the NA was the highest level of professional baseball being played in America at the time. But their scheduling was erratic as teams declined to play games when it didn’t suit them, usually because of travel costs involved, and teams came and went during a season. the Boston Red Stockings won the last four NA pennants mainly by showing up for all their games. In their five years of existence, no less than 24 teams appeared in NA contests, but only three – the Boston Red Stockings, Philadelphia Athletics and New York Mutuals – were in the league all four years.
While some arguments for NA major league status have a modicum of merit, most do not, and there is no reason to ever include NA stats in official major league totals.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow gets folios delivered at the hotel in record time. Today’s Diary.
One thing that’s annoying me right now at work is the individual coffee packs I use to produce coffee for Sparrow’s Morning Coffee Service…At the top, there’s a little indentation that you tear and the pack opens…Fairly easily, too…Except for when they put the indent too close to the edge…You have to be careful, especially if you’ve recently trimmed your fingernails, as I have, because you do it wrong and BOOM coffee flies everywhere…
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Click here to read excerpts and a sample chapter.
On This Date
In 1985 – Coca-Cola dismisses its flagship soda and introduces New Coke. Though sales were initially strong, the overwhelming response was negative and the original formula was back on the market within three months. New Coke was renamed Coke II and remained in stores until July 2002.
In 1964 – The Cincinnati Reds become the first team in major league history to win a game without getting a hit defeating the Houston Astros 1-0. The only run of the game came in the top of the ninth inning on two errors and a groundout. Astros pitcher Ken Johnson pitched a complete game and remains the only player to lose a nine-inning, complete game no-hitter.
In 1983 – Dexys Midnight Runners are at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 with Come On Eileen. The song spent one week at the top, and also went to #1 in Great Britain and six other countries. Though Dexys Midnight Runners had several other Top 40 hits in their native Britain, Come On Eileen remains their only Top 40 hit in America.
Quotebook
You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess: not for power or wisdom at any rate. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
The Chicago Cubs, then known as the White Stockings, won the 1876 National League pennant.
Today’s Stumper
Who scored the only of the game when Ken Johnson lost his complete game no-hitter? – Answer next time!
