The Daily Dose/March 7, 2025
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME: The headline caught our, but regular readers of this crap know this sort of headline always does:
MLB’s unbreakable records: Will anyone touch Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak? Barry Bonds’ home run total?
Here We Go: Regular readers of this crap know the big league record book is one of our all-time favorite reads, so we dove right in. The writer had about two-dozen marks on his list, though some didn’t belong on the list simply because the game was played differently in the 19th century. .
Dry, Technical Matter: For example, teams had fewer pitchers, and they threw every other game or so, finishing what they started. So, among other records, Cy Young’s 749 complete games and Old Hoss Radbourn’s 60 wins in 1884 are exempt from consideration.
Take Me Out To The Dry, Technical Matter: Our own theory is that if someone did something once, someone can do it again. For example, some like to herald Cal Ripken Jr’s record of 2,632 consecutive games played as being unbreakable, but we don’t think so. We don’t think it will be broken, but it could be. Same with Barry Bonds’ 762 career home runs and Ty Cobb’s career .366 batting average: we wouldn’t make a futures bet on them being broken – and you shouldn’t either – but we don’t think they’re unbreakable.
Write This Down: For our money, there are only two unbreakable baseball records: Ted Williams’ career on-base percentage of .482 and Johnny Vander Meer’s consecutive no-hitters. A .482 on-base percentage means you are getting on base 96 times out of a hundred plate appearances. Someone might match Vander Meer’s accomplishment, but no one will ever pitch three consecutive 9-inning no-hitters.
The Bottom Line: We can add these two marks to the two other individual sports marks we think will last forever: Wilt Chamberlain’s 55 rebounds in an NBA game and the 70-68 fifth set John Isner and Nicholas Mahut played at Wimbledon in 2010. Fifty-five rebounds is a lot; it’s a rebound every minute plus rustling up seven more. Tiebreakers are now used for all sets in all professional tennis tournaments now, so the Isner/Mahut record is safe, but even if there weren’t tiebreakers for final sets in tennis majors, that record would be safe forever.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow meets the new guy. Today’s Diary.
Afterward, he opens the door and we say “Who the hell are you???” a pretty funny question under the circumstances…
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 1965 – Several hundred civil rights marchers are attached by Alabama state and county authorities at a bridge crossing the Alabama River at Selma, Alabama. The marchers had started in Selma and were marching on US Hghway 80 when they encountered the authorities, who beat them with nightsticks, while others fired tear gas and charged the group on horseback. There were no deaths, but 17 marchers were hospitalized, while 50 more were treated for lesser injuries. History refers to the event as Bloody Sunday.
In 1951 – Ezzard Charles retains the world heavyweight boxing title with a 15-round unanimous decision over Jersey Joe Walcott at the Olympia in Detroit. It was the second of four meetings between the two fighters, all title bouts: In 1949 Charles won a unanimous decision for the vacant title, and Walcott would beat Charles for the title in July and would retain it in June 1952.
In 1981 – Yarbrough & Peoples is at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart – then known as the Hot Soul Singles chart – for the second of five consecutive weeks with Don’t Stop the Music. It was the first of five Top 10 soul hits for the duo and their first of two #1s. The song also went Top 10 pop in Canada and Great Britain and peaked at #19 on the Hot 100. Cavin Yarbrough and Alisa Peoples had met while taking piano lessons as kids in Dallas and married in 1987.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
Absence diminishes commonplace passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and kindles fire.
Duc De La Rouchefoucauld
Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.
Billboard’s #1 song of 1993 was I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston, which spent a then-record 14 weeks at #1 in 1992 and 1993.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What was Ezzard Charles’ career record? – Answer next time!
