Happy Birthday–December 31

King Kelly (1857)
Tom Connolly (1870)
Bobby Byrne (1884)
Syl Johnson (1900)
Tommy Byrne (1919)
Guy LaValliere (1931)
Alfredo Meli (1944)
Joe Simpson (1951)
Jim Tracy (1955)
Rick Aguilera (1961)
Esteban Loaiza (1971)
Brian Moehler (1971)
Julio DePaula (1982)

Tom Connolly was a major league umpire for many years.  He umpired the first World Series game in 1903.  He once went ten years without ejecting a player.

It does not appear that Bobby Byrne and Tommy Byrne are related.

Minor league catcher Guy LaValliere is the father of major league catcher Mike LaValliere.

Alfredo Meli is a member of the Italian Baseball Hall of Fame.  He was the first man to win Italian championships as a player, a manager, and a general manager.  He also founded the Italian Baseball Federation for the Blind.

Nobody ever makes a fuss about the last baby of the old year.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 31

1965 Rewind: Game Eighty-six

KANSAS CITY 5, MINNESOTA 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, July 17.

Batting stars:  Rich Rollins was 3-for-5 with a double and a run.  Earl Battey was 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs.  Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-1 with three walks and two runs.

Pitching star:  Dick Stigman pitched 6.2 innings, giving up two runs on three hits and three walks with five strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Dick Green was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his eighth and ninth) and three RBIs.  Ken Harrelson was 1-for-3 with a walk and a home run, his eleventh.  Bert Campaneris was 1-for-4 with a walk and a run.

The game:  The Twins opened the second with two walks and a Battey single to take a 1-0 lead.  In the fifth, consecutive RBI singles by Bob AllisonBattey, and Jimmie Hall put them up 4-0 and the game seemed to be well in hand.  Green and Harrelson led off the seventh with back-to-back homers to cut the lead to 4-2.  With two out in the eighth, Green hit a two-run homer to tie it 4-4.  Al Worthington came in to pitch the ninth and gave up a single and two one-out walks to load the bases.  Bill Pleis then came in but gave up a sacrifice fly to Ed Charles to bring in the go-ahead run.  The Twins, who had not threatened since the fifth, did not threaten in the bottom of the ninth either, going down in order.

Of note:  Joe Nossek was 0-for-4.  Tony Oliva was 0-for-5.  Jimmie Hall was 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Record:  The loss dropped the Twins to 54-32.  They were still in first place, but only by three games, as Cleveland again defeated Boston.

Notes:  One assumes there was some consternation at the Twins dropping three in a row at home to the last-place Athletics...Sam Mele shuffled his lineup for this game, with Zoilo Versalles dropping to eighth and Rollins leading off.  Rollins played second base, with Nossek batting second and playing third...Allison returned to the lineup, this time to stay...Green was not exactly a power hitter, but 1965 would be his best home run season, with fifteen.  He would reach double digits four times in his career and hit a total of eighty homers in twelve seasons...Hall raised his average to .322...Battey raised his average to .316.

 

1965 Rewind: Game Eighty-five

KANSAS CITY 10, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, July 16.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk, scoring once.  Jimmie Hall was 2-for-4 with an RBI.  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Bill Pleis pitched two perfect innings with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Diego Segui pitched a complete game, allowing two runs on nine hits and one walk with five strikeouts.  Johnny Blanchard was 2-for-3 with a walk, scoring twice and driving in one.  Tommie Reynolds was 1-for-3 with two walks, scoring twice and driving in one.

The game:  The Athletics jumped on Mudcat Grant early.  There was no one big hit--in fact, the first two batters went out--but then came a walk, four singles, another walk, and another single.  Seven consecutive batters reached, resulting in four runs and an early exit for Grant.  Jerry Fosnow got the last out of the first and got through the second, but in the third a walk, an error, and three more singles led to three more runs and a 7-0 Kansas City lead.  It was never close after that.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 0-for-5.  Earl Battey was 0-for-2.  Grant pitched only two-thirds of an inning, giving up four runs on five hits and two walks with no strikeouts.

Record:  The loss made the Twins 54-31.  Their lead over Cleveland dropped to four games, as the Indians beat Boston 4-3 in ten innings.

Notes:  Hall raised his average to .320...Battey's average dropped to .310...The Athletics had eleven hits, ten of them singles.  The lone exception was a seventh-inning triple by Nelson Mathews...Kansas City certainly bunched their hits, getting five in the first (when they scored four), three in the third (when they scored three), and two in the seventh (when they scored three).  They had only one hit in the other six innings.  The Twins had nine hits, but only twice had more than one in an inning.

The Best of [everything] … or at least most mentioned

Fun aggregation: essentially, "The Best of [everything] - 2015" ranked according to number of mentions on critic's year-end best-of lists. You could probably go further with it, ranking according to average placement on lists, but for CoC purposes, this is more than enough info:

Top Threes

Movies:
Carol - 82% of lists
Spotlight - 77%
Inside Out - 73%
Mad Max: Fury Road - 73%

Television Shows:
Master of None - 83% of lists
Fargo - 83%
Mr. Robot - 75%
Mad Men - 75%

Books:
Between the World and Me - 80% of lists
A Little Life - 60%
The Story of the Lost Child - 60%

Albums:
Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp A Butterfly - 100% of lists
Vince Staples, Summertime ’06 - 63%
Carly Rae Jepsen, Emotion - 63%

And just for fun, because we at the WGOM are so hip, tied for fourth place are few the Citizenry crowed about this year:

Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit - 58%
Joanna Newsom, Divers - 58%

Grimes – “REALiti”

There aren't a lot of live vids for her new album yet, but I've listened to Art Angels repeatedly since it came out a couple of months ago. There were a lot of contenders here, but I think I listened to this the most.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H2adrVAwdY

3 votes, average: 6.67 out of 103 votes, average: 6.67 out of 103 votes, average: 6.67 out of 103 votes, average: 6.67 out of 103 votes, average: 6.67 out of 103 votes, average: 6.67 out of 103 votes, average: 6.67 out of 103 votes, average: 6.67 out of 103 votes, average: 6.67 out of 103 votes, average: 6.67 out of 10 (3 votes, average: 6.67 out of 10)
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