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The Daily Dose/April 14, 2008
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
   
A rather long one today, campers, but we work hard to make it worth your time by introducing a new feature in honor of an entire century passing since the Chicago Cubs last World Series title. Also, significant On This Date Action, plus the latest from the Olympic Torch Relay, and, The Column Four Foto: Patty Loveless!
Editors Note: To commemorate100 years since the Chicago Cubs last World Series victory, the Daily Dose will devote a portion of the On This Date segment to chronicling the 1908 season.
A CENTURY TO REMEMBER: On this date, in 1908, the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs began their most recent world championship season with a 6-5 victory over the Reds in Cincinnati.
Get This: The Cubs were not only defending World Series champions, but also two-time defending National League champions. The National League was beginning its 33rd season, with the Cubs one of their leading franchises, having won a total of eight NL pennants.
Jesus H, That Was A Long Time Ago: In 1908 Ford introduced the Model T, Theodore Roosevelt was president and there were 46 states in the Union after Oklahoma was admitted in 1907. The total would remain at 46 until New Mexico was admitted in 1912.
Couldn't They Just Shoot Him An Email: An ad on page three of the Washington Post of 4/15/21 from the phone company urges citizens to use the newfangled device instead of writing or, heaven forbid, actually visiting, family and friends.
Dry, Technical Matter: As the 1908 season began, the all-time major league home run record was held by Roger Conner, with 138. Napoleon Lajoie, still playing for the Cleveland Indians, held the career batting average mark at .355, though he would be overtaken by Ty Cobb in 1911. The career hit mark was held by Cap Anson with 3,418, a mark Cobb wouldn't surpass until 1923.
The winningest pitcher in ML history heading into 1908 was the still-active Cy Young with 457 wins. Later in the season Young would break Tim Keefe's all-time strikeout mark of 2,562, though Young was still three years away from breaking Pud Galvin's all-time loss mark of 310.
Department of Insensitive Nicknames, But Remember It Is 1908: The Reds got five in the first before anybody needed to hit the Lifebuoy as Cubs starter Orval Overall gave up all the runs before even recording an out, but that was it. Overall proceeded to settle down and gave up only two hits the rest of the way. The Cubs got two runs in the second, and, single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth and one in the ninth, when Heinie Zimmerman's pinch single scored Johnny Evers. Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown got the save with a scoreless ninth. Attendance was listed as 19,425, the largest crowd ever to see a baseball game in Cincinnati.
Cubs Win! Cubs Win! The Cubs end the day in first place, tied with Boston (then in year two of a four-year stretch being called the Doves) and the New York Giants.
YOU COULD LOOK IT UP: On this date, in 1828, Noah Webster copyrighted An American Dictionary of the English Language, his second dictionary. It had 70,000 words.
Other Than That Mrs. Lincoln, How Did You Like The Play: On this date, in 1864, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Fords Theater in Washington, D.C. while watching the play Our American Cousin. He would die the next morning. Booth, a popular actor of the day, had planned to kidnap Lincoln a month earlier at a play, however Lincoln ended up not attending.
After shooting Lincoln, Booth fled the theater, on a leg broken jumping from the Presidential Box to the stage, and headed south through Maryland to Virginia, and reports are he was surprised his action was not heralded in the South. He was killed on April 26, shot by Union Army Sergeant Boston Corbett of the 16th New York Cavalry. Corbett was initially arrested for disobeying orders Booth be taken alive, but the charges were later dropped by War Secretary Edwin Stanton. Four of Booth's conspirators were later arrested, convicted and executed for their role in the plot, and three others spent time in prison.
Oh, By The Way: An attack on Secretary of State William Seward failed, though Seward was severely injured, but a planned attack on Vice-President Andrew Johnson never materialized because the would-be assassin got blitzed, threw his knife away, then went and got a room and slept it off.
OH YEAH, THAT AGAIN: After tumultuous trips to London, Paris and San Francisco, matters have calmed down somewhat for Chinese Olympic officials and their treasured Olympic Torch Relay. There was very tight security this week for the Buenos Aires leg, which went off more or less without incident, and the Tanzania leg turned out to be a big love fest. The torch now heads to Oman, which is somewhere between Tanzania and its following stop, Islamabad.
Make Your Ticket Plans Now/This Should Be Fun/We Are Not Making This Up: The torch relay is actually scheduled to pass through Tibet in June.
Meanwhile: The White House announced that President George Bush will attend the Beijing Games as originally scheduled. Bush, incapable of speaking intelligently on a level embarrassing for a world leader, not to mention a competent high school graduate, didn't make this announcement himself, of course. He had his National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley make it for him.
Speaking on whatever it is FOX passes off as a Sunday news program, Hadley said:
"This issue is in some sense a bit of a red herring. I think, unfortunately, a lot of countries say, 'Well, if we say that we are not going to the opening ceremonies, we've checked the box on Tibet.' That's a cop-out."
Ten-Hut!: There is something to be said about turning a situation around to your advantage. Our favorite example of this comes from Marine Chesty Puller, who, finding him and his men surrounded by the enemy said "They've got us right where we want them; we can fire in every direction now", but this makes no sense. Exactly how not attending the Opening Ceremonies is a cop out is not clear offhand.
Former President Jimmy Carter, who appears to have completely lost his mind in his old age, even compared proposed boycotts to the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games, which he ordered, even though he did not have the authority to do so.
"That was a totally different experience in 1980, when the Soviet Union had brutally invaded and killed thousands and thousands of people. They were threatening to go further south and take over other countries."
Say What? Mr. President, with all deference do your position, you are high. The similarities are eerie. China had brutally invaded Tibet and killed thousands of people. True, they haven't turned south and invaded India, but that just means China has the good sense not to try and cross the Himalayas and take on India on its home turf.
For The Record: The staff of the Writer's Shack has not, and has no plans to, encourage athletes not to participate in the Beijing Games. In fact, we'd like to go, too. We have no particular athletic skill, but we could sit in the bow of a boat and yell at the rowers like they do at that one event, though on second thought any event involving ballast may not be our strongest suit.
It's Only Fair: So if the athletes go and compete without worrying about politics, so should the politicians of the world get down to the business of politics without bothering about what happens on the field. Every elected official on this planet should take a stand because if you want to dance, you gotta pay the fiddler. If China wants to strut on the world stage, then they have to take care of business at home. Tibetans aren't protesting because they want better parks and trails for walking their yaks; they're protesting because their religion, their culture, their life is being destroyed by the Chinese. They're protesting having been occupied without invitation since 1951. The only people who don't believe this are those who enjoy being spoon fed Communist propaganda.
A Final Thought: "The genocide, the atrocities that are occurring there are completely unacceptable to decent people anywhere." - Peter Slipper, Australian Parliament Member.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Herb Arlin was the announcer on the first radio broadcast of a professional baseball game, on KDKA-AM, Pittsburgh on 8/5/21. The Pirates beat the Phillies 8-5. Jimmy Zinn was the winning pitcher.
Today's Trivia Question: Through the 1907 season, the Chicago Cubs had won eight National League pennants. Name the other team that had also won eight NL pennants during that same span? - Answer next time!
Threats? Recipes? Trivia question answers? Email The Writer's Shack Here!
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