The Daily Dose/April 29, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience
Editor’s Note; today is the anniversary of Louisville Grays first baseman John Carbine making five errors in a game in 1876. The record still stands and is the oldest record in the major league record book and today’s Leading Off segment is authored by Mr Carbine.
HEY BATTER, BATTER…SWING: Hi baseball fans, John Carbine here. Thank you for remembering me. I was not a very good major league baseball player. 1876 was my only year in the NL and I had ten errors in my seven games for the Louisville Grays. I was the classic no-field, no-hit first baseman – never in any particular demand – and batted .160 and was released in June.
Baseball was real popular back then, but as a business, it was kind of hit and miss for a while, and it’s good to see the NL still going strong.
Dry, Technical Matter: The previous season I had played with the Keokuk Westerns of the National Association (NA). Now, I know some of you don’t consider the NA a major league. The major league record book doesn’t. Clubs came and went – my Westerns only played 13 games – and schedules were changed on the fly from time to time, but it was the highest level of pro ball back then and I always told folks I played two major league seasons.
Quote That Sucker: I remember after the game my manager John Chapman said “Christ, Carbine, we knew you weren’t any good, but we didn’t know you were that bad. Five errors could be tough to top.”
Ol’ Chap was a funny guy and we got a chuckle out of that line, but we didn’t have those big gloves you have now and fielding was tough. But he was right. A couple of other first basemen had five errors later in the year and a couple of others did it too, later, but no first baseman has been bad enough to have ever topped it.
Broad Historical Context: April 29, 1876, was just a few days after the first NL game. In fact, depending on the times the other two games that day started, it was either the ninth, tenth or eleventh game in National League history, so my record is the oldest.
The Bottom Line: I don’t know how many people have played big league ball over the years – Gaylon probably does – and most of them don’t make it into the ML record book, so I ‘ll take it. It’s nice to be remembered.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody: The alarm goes off at the hotel, despite the fact there is nothing alarming going on. Today’s Diary.
No one knew what the hell was going on…The panel, as panels of these sorts sometimes do, decided it needed attention and went off on its own and the tech, unable to silence the alarm using Established Troubleshooting Techniques (ETT), was reduced to pulling wires out of whatever they were wired into…That worked because an alarm can’t run without power, of course, and it saved us from having to implement my suggestion that we secure power to the whole building.
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On This Date
History’s long march to today
In 1992 – Rioting begins in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in their trial in the Rodney King beatings. The verdicts were issued at 3:15 pm and the violence was underway within an hour. The riots lasted until May 3 and resulted in 63 deaths, 2,383 injuries, over 12,000 arrests and over $1 billion in damage and wasn’t quelled until state and federal troops plus federal law enforcement officers were called in. Two of the officers were later found guilty in a civil trial.
In 1986 – Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox establishes a new major league record for most strikeouts in a nine-inning game in a 3-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners. Clemens struck out 20 batters, breaking the record of 19 established by Steve Carlton in 1969 and later tied by Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan. Clemens would tie his own record in 1996 and remains one of the few people in American major league sports to establish and then tie their own all-time record. Kerry Wood and Max Scherzer have also tied the mark and in 2001 Randy Johnson struck out 20 batters in the first nine innings of an 11-inning game.
In 1984 – Phil Collins is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the second of three consecutive weeks with Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now). The song also went to #1 in Ireland, Norway and Canada, peaked at #2 in Great Britain and was Billboard’s fifth-biggest song of the year. It was his first of seven #1 songs as a solo act and his second of ten Top 10 hits. Though Collins wrote the song specifically for the movie Against All Odds, it was based on an unreleased song Collins had lying around.
Quotebook
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
Fighting against destiny seemed impossible for the moment. – Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon replaced Billion Dollar Babies by Alice Cooper at #1 on Billboard’s album chart in 1973.
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
Who holds the major league record for most strikeouts in a game? – Answer next time!
