The Daily Dose/August 19, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience.
SMH: You know, baseball, you’re about to lose me. Most of the damage has been inflicted by those who run the game, but this time it’s the players that are leaving us wondering what the deal is.
Dry, Technical Matter: Monday night Fernando Tatis, Jr of the San Diego Padres hit a grand slam home run in the eighth inning of a game the Padres, somehow, were leading by seven runs. The home run came on a 3-0 count and this caused their opponent, the Texas Rangers, to whine that Tatis should have been taking the pitch on the theory the game was out of hand and baseball tradition states you don’t do certain things in this situation.
Oh, Jesus H, Here We Go: Let me tell you something, anyone who has seen more than two baseball games knows that a seven-run lead is not out of hand, especially with the Padres bullpen…As an umpire, we’ve knocked around home plate a lot over the years and once saw a team winning 15-0 lose 17-15…It is simply not reasonable to expect someone to lay off a meat pitch with only a seven-run lead…Twelve runs or more, at the big league level, yes, you have yourself a blowout and there is no reason to show anyone up…Seven runs, though, is still a ballgame and us fans have the right to expect teams to compete until the very end.
The Bottom Line: You know, there are two sets of rules in any sport: the ones in the book and the ones the players play the game under. And if taking a pitch on 3-0 late in a seven-run game is now an established part of the game, so be it: it’s the player’s game and they’ll play it as they see fit. But boy, the grand old game has gone soft. A seven-run lead is hardly insurmountable. The Texas Rangers should stop whining and play the game.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow talks to the same man three times. Today’s Diary.
Oh hell, this could go on all night so yours truly laid the hammer down: I asked him what he wanted me to do for him.
Friends here’s a Sparrow ProTip: if you’re ever making a pest of yourself at a hotel front desk – or anywhere, for that matter – and you are asked this, your desk clerk has reached the end of his rope…He believes he’s done everything he can for you and wants you to vanish.
Backstairs at the Monte Carlo: Spike’s capacity for foul language is &#@%ing shocking.
Spike has – and this isn’t even subject for discussion – the foulest mouth I have ever heard. I spent four years on a submarine where I earned a Ph.D. in the F word with an emphasis on the Holy Trinity and even I was appalled.
Spike was yapping about pigs and twigs and how a bachelor like me should never turn down a phone number from a fat pig because pigs generally have thin friends and she was talking about (human) genitalia in ways that made even me uncomfortable.
Free Stuff
The same trick the drug dealers use.
Backstairs at the Monte Carlo
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Criminals, Courtesans and Constables
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The Regular Guys
Coming soon!
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On This Date
History’s long march to today.
In 1936 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge begins with the start of show trials against followers of Leon Trotsky and other opponents of the Communist Party. The first trial had 16 defendants and lasted until August 25, with all 16 found guilty and executed. Similar trials were conducted until 1938.
In 1981 – Renaldo Nehemiah of the United States establishes a new world record in the 110-meter hurdles in a meet in Zurich. Nehemiah ran the race in 12.93 seconds to break the mark of 13 seconds he had established in May 1979, which broke the record of 13.16 seconds he had originally established a month earlier. The record is now 12.8 seconds, established by Aries Merritt of the US in 2012.
In 1967 – Stevie Wonder is at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart – then known as the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart – for the fourth and final non-consecutive week with I Was Made to Love Her. Earlier, the song had peaked at #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and at #5 in Great Britain. It was the fourth of a soul chart record 20 #1 songs for Wonder – a record shared with Aretha Franklin – and was his fifth Top 10 hit on the Hot 100.
Quotebook
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
I learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live that life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours…If you have built your castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. – Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
Carl Yastrzemski holds the American League record for most career plate appearances. His 13,992 plate appearances is second on the all-time list behind Pete Rose.
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
Of the 30 men who have held the 110-meter hurdles since 1908, how many have been American? – Answer next time!
