“How do we know baseball is America’s Pastime? Because kissing a girl is called getting to first base, not getting a first down.” ~ Baseballism
From time to time, I go through my notebook or notes on my iPhone and decide if I’m going to use them for a blog post or not. This morning I decided to just throw some of those notes into a post, as they didn’t seem to be enough to be a stand-alone article, but still had reading value. Of course, I might revisit some of these more fully. Hope you enjoy.
On June 17, 1942, Paul “Big Poison” Waner then playing for the Boston Braves, while standing on first, gestured to the official scorer not to credit him with a hit after a ground ball was knocked down by Cincinnati shortstop Eddie Joost. Waner didn’t want a questionable play to be his career 3000th hit. Pure class from the Hall of Famer.
On August 8, 1976, the Chicago White Sox ran out of their dugout and into the “history books”. Why, might you ask? It was because they were the first (and only) major league team to take the field wearing shorts. It was one of the owners, Bill Veeck’s promotional ideas (he will have a post all his own eventually). Bill said, “If it’s 95 degrees out, an athlete should be glad to put on short pants and forget his bony knees. Hell, I’ve got a worse looking knee than any of my players. It’s made of solid wood.” It was a one and done event. Thanks, Bruce Meissner, for reminding me of this.
(Bucky Dent batting at Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois, August 8, 1976. Found on the internet. Assuming Public Domain.)
Over 100 Marijuana plants sprouted on the Anaheim Stadium playing filed in 1976 after the rock group, The Who played a concert there.
In 1977, outfielder Dave Kingman played in all 4 of the divisions in MLB in one season. He played for the New York Mets, the San Diego Padres, the California Angels and the New York Yankees.
On June 26, 1985, in Clearwater (the Florida State League), Phillies organist Wilbur Snapp was ejected from the game by the first base umpire for playing “Three Blind Mice” after a close and disputed first base call.
On August 8, 1988, the Chicago Cubs were FINALLY scheduled to play their first home night game at Wrigley Field with their newly installed lights. Prior to this, the Cubs only scheduled day games at home. They had planned on installing them in the 1940s but didn’t due to the war effort. A ninety-one-year-old Cub fan by the name of Harry Grossman was chosen to flip the switch and bring the Cubs into the 20th century. After the count of three, it was announced, “Let there be light” and so there was. Unfortunately, the game was put in a rain delay in the fourth inning and eventually postponed. (Then you had to hear from Cubbie “fans”, ‘see God doesn’t want the Cubs playing home night games’ and other such nonsense.) So, the first official night game at Wrigley took place the next night, August 9th with the Cubs beating the New York Mets 6-4.
Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres has the highest career batting average with two strikes in MLB history with a .302. Wade Boggs of the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays has the second highest with .262. That is an amazing stat.
Though their first 403 MLB career games, both Vladimir Guerrero, Sr. and his son, Jr. had an OBP (On Base Percentage) of .363 and 87 home runs.
Brian Serven of the Colorado Rockies made his major league debut on May 18, 2022. He fouled off the 1st pitch of his 1st major league at bat and it landed in the hands of his family attending the game.
Dylan Cease, a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox has allowed one of fewer runs in 13 consecutive starts, That’s the longest streak since earned runs became an official stat in 1913.
I do want to take a moment and say “Rest in Peace” to Bill Russell (February 12, 1934 - July 31, 2022) and Vin Scully (November 29, 1927 - August 2, 2022). You will be dearly missed. I will be writing about both of these men in the near future.
Well, that’s all for now. I cleaned out some notes, gave you some history, and hopefully brightened your day. Thanks for reading.
~ Coach Mike
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Such fun and interesting facts🤗. Really enjoyed reading them ‼️ I loved the opening baseballism⚾️ Looking forward to more of your terrific posts😃 sadly, we did loose 2 great sports figures 🙏🙏🙏.