Notes from around the Human Experience…
YE OLDE NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SPORT: For the first time since the turn of the century, home field advantage for the World Series did not go the winner of baseball’s all-star game.
Good. Which league is scheduled to host four World Series games instead of three is too important to leave to the result of a meaningless exhibition game. This year home field advantage will go to the league champion with the best record.
Oh Yeah: The American League won Tuesday’s game in Miami, 2-1, in ten innings.
More Baseball Crap: Home runs are up – home runs and scoring have been going up since immediately after the 2015 All-Star Game – and a lot more pitchers than normal are reporting blisters on their hands. This is giving conspiracy theorists, those that still pay attention to baseball, the opportunity to proclaim that MLB juiced the ball in the middle of the 2015 season.
But I‘ll tell you what, even sane, rational people like us wonder. Since the middle of the 2015, more home runs are being hit than there were in the steroid era and immediate, significant gains like that do not happen without a reason.
Get Your Official Daily Dose Policy Right Here: It’s too bad baseball thinks scoring is the only way to hold our interest. It isn’t. Good pitching and tight defense are equally fun games to watch, and the tension this produces in the late innings keeps casual fans excited and cause real fans to achieve and maintain a state of arousal. Besides, lots of runs lead to more at bats and more pitching changes, which lead to longer games which baseball is trying to avoid.
AND IN THIS CORNER: The smack talk leading up to the Floyd Mayweather/Connor McGregor fiasco on August 26 has begun. This may well be the best part of this whole imbroglio, because the fight is probably going to be very bad, because it will not be very close.
We can’t decide who will dominate, however. Perhaps Mayweather’s skills have not diminished all that much and McGregor will be completely bamboozled by the mechanics and rules of boxing and Mayweather will hand him his lunch.
OTOH: Perhaps McGregor will have plan that will be so well executed Mayweather’s head will be spinning.
The Following Is For Entertainment Purposes Only: If we had to put money on this, we’d put it on McGregor. He is younger than Mayweather, and even Mayweather admits his skills have declined somewhat. McGregor can still bring MMA speed and ferocity within the context of boxing’s rules and by definition he will bring something Mayweather has never seen before. It might be enough to beat Mayweather at his own game.
NBA SUMMER LEAGUE: We do not understand the attention the NBA summer league gets at all. Now, we understand there are a lot of TV shows and countless Internet pages that need content, but your average, regular season NBA game is pretty meaningless, which makes any NBA summer league game is even more meaningless, which is hard to do. It’s the off season, give us a break.
REALLY, THIS IS FOREVER…I MEAN IT: Britain’s King Henry VIII marries his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr, on this date in 1543. Queen Catherine herself was of noble birth, descended through her father from King Edward III, and she and Henry shared many ancestors and were cousins many times over. They would be married until Henry’s death in 1547.
Bon Voyage: One of history’s great explorers, England’s James Cook, begins his third and final voyage on this date in 1776.
Leaving Plymouth, England, his flotilla of the HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery sailed south around the Cape of Good Hope, then east to New Zealand and Hawaii. They then continued east, reaching the west coast of North America and heading north. In 1779 they returned to Hawaii.
Dry, Technical Matter: Cook would die in Hawaii. On February 14, 1779, Cook was – get this – killed while trying to kidnap the King of Hawaii.
Say What? We are not making that up. The natives had stolen of of Cook’s boats and Cook had decided to take the king hostage until it was returned.
Above And Beyond The Call Of Duty: The US Army Medal of Honor is established on this date in 1862. Originally for enlisted men, Army officers were made eligible the following year.
FunFact: In 1861 the Navy had established a Medal of Valor. The Medal of Honor is oldest continuously awarded decoration the US armed forces.
“Conspicuous Gallantry And Intrepidity At The Risk Of Life…” I the old days the Medal was sometimes awarded for what essentially was winning a game of capture the flag, and other incidents that would not receive consideration today, mainly because the military did not have another award to issue. Sometimes, it would also be awarded for peacetime bravery and requirements for awarding the Medal of Honor were not standardized until 1963.
Dry, Technical Matter: 19 people have earned the Medal twice. Of these, 14 were awarded it for separate actions, while five others were awarded the Army and Navy medals for the same action.
QuoteBook: Man must deal with himself. It is his reality he must face each morning when he rises. – Louis L’Amour, The Lonesome Gods
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Babe Ruth hit his first major league home run on May 6, 1915, at the Polo Grounds in New York City.
Today’s Stumper: Who was the first Medal of Honor recipient? – Answer next time!
