The Daily Dose/January 29, 2021
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience.
PLAY BALL: This week it was announced that no one was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in balloting conducted by the baseball writers. This is hardly the first time it’sm happened and it set off the usual debate about who does and does not belong in Cooperstown.
Now Hear This: There really should be no debate: Harold Baines is in, so if you were as good or better than Baines welcome aboard. If you weren’t as good as Baines, you don’t belong, though well done on playing more major league games than we did.
Dry, Technical Matter: Baines of course, was one hell of a ballplayer and if they want him in their Hall, so be it, though it should be noted no one – except for White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who had a hard-on for it – was clamoring for Baines’ election and some might recall that Baines himself seemed surprised.
But boy, if Baines – who once finished as high as 9th in the American League in home runs – belongs, so do others, including a dozen or so who were left out in this year’s balloting.
Fly In The Ointment: Long-time readers of this crap will recall that Gary Carter used to be our standard for baseball Hall of Fame membership, but times change. Now, some may quibble that Baines was elected by a veteran’s committee, but his plaque is in the same wing as Carter’s and not hidden in a closet, so he is our new standard for Hall of Fame membership.
The Bottom Line: Baseball Hall of Fame voting now is a joke. Between players on steroids not making it and mere very good players getting in, Hall enshrinement is no longer reserved for the all-time greats. The all-time very goods are getting in now and the entire process is quickly losing its luster.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – There are more plumming problems at The Shire. Today’s Diary.
Bad timing, too, because at that moment in human history I sort of needed to use the can, but it was something that’s happened before and everything worked out…Regular readers of this crap may – or they not – recall that a couple of months ago there were some troubles and I thought I’d squared them away and was reading in the chair when there a gurgling sound and the whole system sort of belched and overflowed…I strongly suspect this is what happened here because, of course, I was gone…Unless the cat clogged it up, which I doubt, tho she declined comment on the matter.
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On This Date
The long march to today.
In 1845 – Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven is published in the New York Evening Mirror, causing an immediate sensation and making Poe a household name. Poe was paid $9 for The Raven, a bit more than $300 in today’s money. The poem consists of 18 stanzas of six lines each and while noted for a variety of elements, its literary status is still debated amongst people that do not get invited to too many parties.
In 1936 & 1963 – The first inductees into the baseball and professional football halls of fame are introduced. Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson are the baseball inductees and `17 are selected for the football Hall, including George Halas, Jim Thorpe and Red Grange.
In 1983 – Mickey Gilley is at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Hot Country Singles chart – for the only week with Talk To Me, his 15th of 16 #1 country hits. The song has charted several times, including a 1958 version by Little Willie John which peaked at #5 on Billboard’s soul chart and at #22 on the Best Sellers in Stores pop chart, making the song one of the few that has peaked on all three major Billboard singles charts.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Henry David Thoreau
Walden
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
13 teams have won multiple Super Bowls. The first was the Green Bay Packers, who won Super Bowls I and II, and the most recent was the Kansas City Chiefs, who won Super Bowls IV and LIV.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
Who is the only person enshrined in both the football and baseball Halls of Fame? – Answer next time!
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