The Daily Dose/September 29, 2018
By Gaylon Kent –
America’s Funniest Guy
In The News
Baseball’s regular season ends today. It hasn’t been pretty. The game, of course, is changing, has changed, and not for the better.
While the final figures aren’t in yet, strikeouts will outnumber hits for the first time ever and the cumulative major league (ML) batting average will probably be below .250, the lowest mark of the designated hitter era. On average, starting pitchers do not make it out of the sixth inning, though the roots of this span a generation or so, when kids stopped playing sandlot ball. The average ML game has eight pitchers and the average game takes over three hours. It’s slow pace, once one of its charms, is now a drawback.
There are some bad teams, too, paced by the Baltimore Orioles, who started Saturday 60 games out of first place. They will fail in their attempt to set the American League record for finishing a season the most games back (64.5, St Louis, 1939) but wherever they finish they will set the ML record for most games behind a division winner.
Attendance is down, as baseball fans have shown they are not particularly pleased with the way the game is now played. 18 ML teams will end the season with fewer paying customers than they had in 2017 and only six will see an increase of more than 100,000 fans. Overall, ML attendance will be down 2.9 million fans and there is no reason to think the postseason TV numbers will do anything but continue their downward trend.
Between the NFL beginning it’s long-term self-destruction and nobody caring about big league baseball anymore, it’s hard not to think that a couple generations from now the professional sports landscape could, will, be considerably different than what it is now.
Today at the Site
Sparrow buys Susan some groceries because she’s a bit short before payday on today’s edition of The Diary of a Nobody…Plus there’s lots of news from the retailer.
The Thought for the Day will return.
On This Date
In 1962 – Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta found the National Farm Workers Association in California. Now known as the United Farm Workers, the union remains the foremost proponent of the working rights of field workers. Today the union represents about 8,200 members who pay an average of $869 annually for their membership.
In 1927 – Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees becomes baseball’s single-season home run leader, hitting his 60th home run off Washington’s Tom Zachary. Ruth broke the record of 59 established by Babe Ruth the previous season. His home run, with a man aboard in the 8th inning, was the difference in the 4-2 Yankee victory over the Senators. The game also marked the final major league appearance of Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson, who flew out batting for Zachary in the 9th inning.
In 1944 – Swinging on a Star by Bing Crosby with the Williams Brothers Quartet and John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra are at #1 for last of nine consecutive weeks on Billboard’s National Best Selling Retail Records chart, a forerunner of the Hot 100. The song was featured in the movie Going My Way and won an Oscar for Best Original Song and also won Crosby his only Academy Award, for Best Actor.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Of the two constitutional amendments that did not become part of the Bill of Rights, Article One, dealing with how Representatives are apportioned, is still pending, needing the approval of 27 more states for ratification. Article Two was approved in 1992 and became the 27th Amendment.
Today’s Stumper
How many Academy Awards did Bing Crosby win? – Answer next time!
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