The Daily Dose/February 9, 2021
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience.
HUT, HUT, HIKE: Tom Brady’s seven Super Bowl titles are the most so, there being nothing else of importance going on in the world, we decided to compare this total to the leaders in the other North American major sports to decide who could be regarded as the greatest team sports player of all-time or, to put it another way, would the team had won as many titles without them?
Running The Numbers: Seven Super Bowl wins is nothing to sneeze at, of course, but it does trail the leaders in the other three major North American sports. Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics and Henri Richard of the Montreal Canadiens each won eleven titles, while Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees won ten.
Nice To Meet You, Sir: Henri Richard played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1955-75 – a great time to be a Montreal Canadien – and is the younger, less-famous brother Maurice “Rocket” Richard, even though he is in the same Hockey Hall of Fame the Rocket is. Russell played for the Celtics from 1956-69 while Berra was a Yankee from 1946-63.
Dry, Technical Matter: Richard and Berra are the first to go. Of course, both were amongst the best ever at what they did, but they were, frankly excellent players with the right team at the right time. Both the Canadiens and the Yankees would have been winners without them.
More Dry, Technical Matter: You can’t say that about Russell and Brady, though, because both were central to their team’s successes. They were more than great players who were great when they needed to be, they were/are players that made those around them great, too.
The Bottom Line: Russell might get the nod over Brady because he won his eleven titles in only 13 seasons while Brady has taken a rather leisurely 20 seasons to win his seven titles, or maybe not. Maybe we’ll give Brady the nod because he’s been great for so long. We’re not deciding yet.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow does some reflecting. Today’s Diary.
Ages ago I was working at a motel on the Sin City Strip and from time to time this genuinely crazy, homeless woman would stop by in the middle of the night to chat…I’m ashamed to say I’ve forgotten her real name, even tho I haven’t forgotten her, because I’ve always thought of her as Agent 7…Anyway, her mind was warped…She thought the world was controlled by World Government working out of Malta (and, frankly, I don’t know for sure that it’s not) an outfit her son flew spy planes for.
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On This Date
The long march to today.
In 1943 – The Battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific ends, with the final withdrawal of Japanese troops. The Japanese disguised the withdrawal as reinforcements over the course of three nights after suffering heavy losses to Allied forces in the air, on the ground and at sea and successfully evacuated over 10,000 troops. The battle had begun the previous August.
In 1895 – Volleyball is invented by William Morgan, an instructor at the Holyoke, Massachusetts YMCA. Originally, the game was played with any number of players, consisted of nine innings with three serves per team and there were no limits on the number of hits before sending the ball over the net. Nudists first started playing the game in the 1920s and volleyball became an Olympic sport in 1964.
In 1963 – Paul and Paula are at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the first of three consecutive weeks with Hey Paula. It was the first of five chart singles for the group, their first of two Top 10 hits and remains their only #1 song. The song also went to #1 on Billboard’s soul chart, peaked at #8 in Great Britain and was Billboard’s #6 song of the year. Paul and Paula are not a couple, but a stage name for Ray Hildebrand and Jill Jackson.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
I balanced sometimes between principle and inclination…So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.
Benjamin Franklin
Autobiography
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
The NBA record for most career field goals by an active player is Lebron James with 12,704.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What player who did not play for the New York Yankees has won the most World Series titles? – Answer next time!
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