That’s me, according to one commenter. However, unsurprisingly, he got it wrong. In psychology, an idiot has the least intelligence on the IQ scale (usually between 0 and 25). Then there are imbeciles who are not quite as dumb as idiots (usually an IQ between 26 and 50). Those who have an IQ between 51 and 70 are considered morons. Here is what he said: Well Mark, you are an imbecile. Just…
Over the years, many times the Dodgers have brought in MLB veterans who were very good at one time and were acquired by the Dodgers when the end was near. And it happened in Brooklyn many times too. Lefty O’Doul was 34 when he joined Brooklyn. The guy was a great hitter as shown by his .349 career batting average. In three years with the Dodgers O’Doul hit .340. He…
Among the recent news items was a clip that Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, would celebrate his 49th birthday on Sunday, December 25. That piqued my curiosity a bit and I quickly took a peak to determine who else might have a Christmas Day birthday. That is, those with a recognizable name for me. There were many who had been born on that day but almost all were not part…
No, we are not talking about a couple of games, we are talking about a double post. Michael Norris (aka/Bear) has the first half on Lou Gehrig and Mark Timmons has the second half on last night’s debacle. June 2. Now Lou Gehrig Day–Bear When I was a boy, back in the day, my baseball hero was not Babe Ruth or Duke Snider. It was Lou Gehrig. Why? Well, I…
Hi gang! I thought I would lighten the mood around the morgue and talk about a subject I know a little about. Beards. As I was looking through my baseball cards, I noticed the obvious. There is a lot more facial hair in the game today than when I first started watching the game. Clean faces were the thing. Back in the 1800’s, a lot of players favored wearing a…
From 1950 to 1998 there was one constant with the Dodgers. Ownership. Walter Francis O’Malley took control of the team as it’s primary stockholder and owner in 1950. Branch Rickey’s contract was expiring in October of that year. He had purchased a 25% ownership of the team in 1944. Rickey and John L. Smith were also part owners as were the heirs of McKeever who had owned the team with…
He was my favorite player growing up. A California boy who found fame in the borough of Brooklyn. He was a graceful outfielder, and a power hitting threat on the great Brooklyn teams of the late 40’s and 50’s. He was the only lefty threat in the lineup that featured Jackie, Gil, Campy, Pee Wee, and Scoonj. And in Brooklyn he was simply “The Dook”. I got that part from…
Harold Peter Henry Reese was born on July 23rd 1918 in Ekron, Kentucky. He lived there until he was almost 8 when his family then moved to Louisville. He got his nickname, Pee Wee, playing marbles. A Pee Wee is a small marble. Reese was so small that he did not play baseball until his senior year in high school. At that time he only weighed 120 pounds and played…
I never saw him play. He died 2 months and 2 days after I was born. But from the time I first knew about his exploits on a ballfield, he was who I wanted to be like. In many ways we had the same type of youth. I was put in foster care at 10. He went to a home at age 7. Only difference was he was considered incorrigible,…
There’s a pretty good chance, unless you are an ardent student of “old-time” baseball and you are a scholarly student of the Negro Leagues, that you have never heard of Bullet Rogan. I have to confess that I knew very little of Bullet Joe Rogan until my recent article on the Negro Leagues. Frankly, even with the information we have, there is far too little known about him. From those…