Notes from around the Human Experience…
THERE’S ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE: Last month, the Ringling Brothers Circus closed after entertaining Americans for parts of three centuries.
It didn’t take long to fill the entertainment-you-don’t-need-to-see-but-want-to-see void, as it was announced this week that boxer Floyd Mayweather and UFC champion Conor McGregor will meet in a boxing match.
In This Corner: This isn’t even going to be close. Floyd Mayweather makes any short list of the greatest boxers in human history. He has won world titles in five different weight classes and is 49-0 as a professional. When he retired after his last fight in September, 2015, he was the WBC welterweight and super welterweight champion. To think that a boxing novitiate can come in and complete with one of the greatest ever is folly. There’s no way. Mayweather is one of the most technically proficient and best defensive fighters ever, which will frustrate McGregor and Mayweather will win a majority, not-even-close decision in one of the dullest fights anyone has ever seen.
And In This Corner: This isn’t even going to be close. McGregor is 12 years younger than Mayweather and has been fighting regularly the past couple of years while Mayweather has been retired. While not a boxer, McGregor is a fighter and one of the best in the world with a left hand that could drop an elephant. Despite his skill and experience Mayweather will have no idea what to expect. McGregor knows he can’t outbox Mayweather, but he knows he can outfight him. He will come out fearless and savage and Mayweather will have some zero clue what hit him. The fight will not even go three rounds and maybe not even one.
Oh Yeah: The fight is scheduled for August 26 in Las Vegas.
FunFact: Before he took MMA fighting, McGregor was a plumbers apprentice in his native Ireland.
WELL, THAT WAS QUICK: Five days after the first one, Monte Ward of the Providence Grays pitches the second major league perfect game on this date in 1880. The Grays defeated the Buffalo Bisons 5-0 at the Messer Street Grounds in Providence.
FunFact: Ward was also serving as the Providence manager at the time, the second of three managers the Grays would have in 1880, making Ward the only pitcher to be his own manager while throwing a perfect game.
FunFact II: Ward is also the only perfect game pitcher to umpire a major league game. Playing for the New York Giants in 1888, he filled in as the only umpire on September 21, a 3-3 tie played in Detroit.
Oh, Jesus H: Ward turned to a career in baseball only after getting kicked out of Penn State and failing as a traveling salesman. He would be instrumental in forming the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players in 1890, which led to the formation of the Players League, which lasted only for the 1890 season, but which is classified as a major league.
Dry, Technical Matter: Both the Grays and the Bisons would fold after the 1885 season.
And So It Begins: The Watergate scandal begins on this date in 1972, as five men, working for the Republican National Committee, are arrested for attempting to wiretap telephones at Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. The ensuing scandal would lead to President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974 and 69 others being indicted for assorted crimes. Of these 69, 48 would either plead guilty or be convicted at trial.
Fly In The Ointment: The break-in was discovered by a 24-year-old security officer named Frank Wills. While making his rounds, Wills discovered a latch on a door was taped so the door wouldn’t latch shut. Wills didn’t think too much of it and merely removed the tape. When on a following round he discovered the latch was taped again, he called the police.
Oh Yeah: Wills died in 2000 at the age of 52, after bouncing from job to job.
More And So It Begins: The OJ Simpson saga begins on this date in 1994, when Simpson is arrested at his Los Angeles-area home following a low-speed chase on Los Angeles freeways and roads. Simpson was arrested on suspicion of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman a few days earlier.
Simpson’s trial would begin the following January and he would be acquitted in October.
Thought For The Day: Whoever would make himself a distinctive individual must be keen to perceive what he is not. – Friedrich Schleirmacher
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The second-longest flying US flag was the 48-star flag, which flew for 47 years, from 1912-59.
Today’s Stumper: The Trivia feature will return.
