The Daily Dose/October 1, 2018
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
In The News
You know, the tie-breaker games today to decide the champions of the National League West and Central divisions really should have us more excited than they do. But they don’t because of course all four teams, the Cubs, Brewers, Dodgers and Rockies are making the playoffs anyway. The winners of today’s games are division champions and start the Division Series on Thursday. The losers play in the wild-card game Tuesday, with the winner earning the final berth in the division series.
We’ve never really sold on the wild card game. We’ve never really been unsold on it, either. Sure, a one-game playoff has the feeling of the high school regionals, but it does do a good job of keeping more teams in the playoff hunt longer and baseball needs all the excitement it can get right now.
What baseball should really do is add a couple of teams and have either eight four-team divisions or four eight-team divisions. They could also regionalize everything so all teams in an area are in the same league. Baseball likes to make a lot of noise about not wanting to expand until stadium issues in Oakland and Tampa Bay are resolved but this is a bunch of hooey. If there were billionaires knocking down the doors waving checks at MLB headquarters then someone would be typing up franchise agreements right now.
And they should also make the DH universal. Nobody wants to see pitchers hit and those who achieve and maintain states of arousal deciding whether to take a pitcher out or leave him can go play chess.
Today at the Site
Sparrow has a relatively busy night at the hotel on today’s edition of The Diary of a Nobody. Plus, he has some tips for shopping at the retailer and the Sleep Log has the weekly totals, plus the Monthly and Rolling Three Month averages.
Sticking the chip reader in and then taking it out as fast as you can three times does not work…Nor is living in denial and swiping your card thru the slot as fast as you can particularly productive, either…It only confuses the system…Please, do as your told…
James Meredith, the first black to attend and graduate from the University of Mississippi, has The Thought for the Day. It’s a repeat from October 1 of last year with Meredith talking about how he finds the concept of civil rights insulting.
…we are all American. To oblige some to further identify themselves by hyphenating their American identity is insulting and until we stop degrading our fellow citizens like this we will always be a racist country.
On This Date
In 1962 – James Meredith becomes the first black to attend the University of Mississippi. Meredith had been denied admission twice before and it took both the courts and the federal government to eventually persuade the state to admit Meredith. Meredith, who had previously served nine years in the Air Force and had attended Jackson State, would become the first black to graduate from Ole Miss the following year. Now 85, Meredith lives in Jackson, Mississippi.
In 1903 – The first World Series begins as the Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Boston Red Sox – then known as the Americans – 7-3 in Game 1. The Pirates got off to a quick start with four first-inning runs off of Cy Young while Deacon Phillipe scattered five hits for the Pirates. Then a best-of-nine affair, the Americans would win the series in eight games.
In 1977 – Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band by Meco is the #1 song on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the first of two weeks. It was not from the Star Wars soundtrack but was from Meco’s album Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk. The song would spend two weeks at #1 and remains Meco’s only Top 10 hit. The song it was based on, Star Wars (Main Title) by John Williams charted at the same time, peaking at #1o.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Bing Crosby won one Oscar in his career, in 1945, Best Supporting Actor in Going My Way. In his acceptance speech Crosby said he could not have been more surprised had he won the Kentucky Derby.
Today’s Stumper
Who was the first black football player at Ole Miss? – Answer next time!
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