The Daily Dose/December 5, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience.
USA! USA!: There’s a lot going on right now, of course, but for our money, there is really only one question that matters right now:
Will the National League – finally – permanently adopt the designated hitter (DH) rule?
They used it this past season, a necessity of the Virus Era, and it is likely major league baseball will not adopt it – with player association approval – for the 2021 season.
Dry, Technical Matter: Our loss because pitchers, by and large, can’t hit and this is hardly a recent phenomenon, either. They never could hit and the concept of a DH has been around since the turn of last century and the National League even came close to adopting it in 1929.
They really should have because it would improve their game. Purists like to climb on their high horse and proclaim the DH takes all the strategy out of the game, but the purpose of a batter is to hit the ball and the game is better off when there are nine professional hitters in a lineup instead of eight. Those who want a strategy fix can go play chess.
The Bottom Line: It’s silly the National League hasn’t permanently adopted the DH and it gets sillier by the year. The only people who want to see pitchers hit are dullards who live in their parent’s basement and don’t get invited to any parties. The National League should have adopted the DH years ago.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow has news from the Cat Desk.
The big news is the cat, for the first time in months, used the bed I keep for her on my desk…I am not making that up…It was 0430 or so and yours truly was doing project work when she meowed from her bed atop the bookcase in the living room, got up and stretched and then hopped down to the small desk by the bookcase and then leaped across to my desk…This is not particularly newsworthy…The cat does this several times a day, however, after making her usual tour of the desk, to include cutting in front of me and generally pawing around for a bit, she went to the bed off to my left…It hadn’t been moved because yours truly always figured she’d come back to it eventually…The cat has completely ignored it for months, treating it as if it had been sprayed with an herbicide, but this morning she was back as if she’d last visited yesterday, grooming herself for a long while before settling in for a nap.
The Regular Guys/Chapter 7: Ann visits Lenny and Larry in Vegas.
“Will you tell these animals at the door that I’m sleeping with you and to let me backstage please?”
Lenny laughed and walked to the door that led from the room. He poked his head out. There was a young, rather serious man blocking Ann’s way.
“It’s OK,” he said confidentially. “She’s one of our groupies. I thought we put her on the official groupie list.” Lenny winked at the guard, who nodded knowingly.
Columns, books, shopping lists, click here to get in on the laughs.
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On This Date
The long march to today.
In 1933 – The 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution repealing Prohibition is ratified when a ratifying convention in Utah approves it. Earlier in the day Pennsylvania and Ohio had ratified the amendment and it was later ratified by Maine and Montana. Of the other states, eight took no action while South Carolina rejected it and North Carolina declined to hold a ratifying convention. It remains the only amendment where ratification by state convention was mandated in the amendment, and the only amendment to repeal a previous one.
In 1970 – The Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe Trophy and the Bill Masterson Trophy are stolen from the NHL Hall of Fame in Toronto. The Stanley Cup was actually an exact replica kept around for on-ice presentations and all three were found a couple of weeks later when they were left outside the house of a Toronto police officer. The Stanley Cup is given to the winner of the NHL playoffs, the Conn Smythe Trophy is given to the NHL’s most valuable player and the Bill Masterson Trophy is given to the player best exemplifying the spirits of sportsmanship, perseverance and dedication.
In 1953 – Big Joe Turner is at #1 on Billboard’s R&B Most Played in Juke Boxes chart – a predecessor of today’s soul chart – for the first of eight consecutive weeks with Hush Honey. It was the seventh Top 40 soul hit for Turner and the first of two soul chart #1s and the song also peaked at #23 on Billboard’s Best Sellers in Stores pop chart. Though not the most prolific hit maker of the era, Turner’s influence on American music is difficult to underestimate and he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, two years after his death.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
In truth {Seneca} never made up his mind which he loved better – philosophy or power, wisdom or pleasure; and he was never convinced of their incompatibility.
Will Durant
The Story of Civilization, Vol. III: Caesar to Christ
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
The only American team to win the Grey Cup, the championship of the Canadian Football League, was the Baltimore Stallions, who defeated the Calgary Stampeders 37-20 in the 83rd Grey Cup game in 1995.
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
When did the United States Congress send the 21st Amendment to the states for ratification? – Answer next time!
