Quote of the Day- Carlton Fisk

Since the baseball pennant races are in full swing (no pun intended) here in America, we thought we'd quip some famous baseball all-stars of yesterday.

Carlton Fisk, 65,a catcher,  played his entire long career for just two teams, a rarity today, the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox.

He is perhaps best known for hitting a 12th inning grand slam home-run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series which the Red Sox ultimately lost to the Cincinnati Reds, a team which also boasted an all-star catcher in Johnny Bench.

Here is Fisk's quote:

"It's not what you achieve, it's what you overcome. That's what defines your career."

http://www.carltonfisk.com

http://www.redsox.mlb.com

Weekend Road Trip- Rhode Island to Nevada (6 of 20)

Today, we continue our series Weekend Road Trips with a look at how far two cities with famous minor league baseball teams are from each other. The two cities are Pawtucket, RI, where the Pawtucket Red Sox play, (triple-A team for the Boston Red Sox) and Las Vegas, Nev., where one can see both a Las Vegas 51s game and an expensive-as-all-get-out show from Wayne Newton on the same night.

We are actually going to measure the distance between Modern Diner in Pawtucket, which has been featured in the great "Zippy the Pinhead" comic strip, and Ibo Turkish Restaurant, which we assume serves our favorite meat dish Adana kebab, on West Flamingo Road in Las Vegas. According to the "Providence Phoenix," the Modern Diner serves very good pumpkin pancakes!

The Pawsox are currently on the road in Syracuse, NY, today, where they are playing the Syracuse Chiefs. The team's web site reported that they were winning 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Pawsox are playing the Chiefs on a double-bill as we speak. They return to Rhode Island on Saturday to host the Buffalo Bisons. On April 30, the Pawsox will have a special fireworks display after their game with the Toledo Mudhens.

While we were looking at the PawSox's web site, we saw that Yamaico Navarro, a shortstop from the Dominican Republican, was at bat for the road team. The team also consists of his countrymen Tony Pena Jr., a 30-year-old pitcher for the PawSox whose father Tony Pena was a major-league all-star who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and five other teams.

As for the Las Vegas 51s, they are named for Area 51 which is a military base that is 80 miles north of town; it is also where UFO believers feel that ETs have passed by so perhaps it serves as their Atlanta (forgive the airline passenger humor).

Actor Billy Bob Thornton once wore a 51s team hat on a late-night talk show. The next home game for the team will be against the Fresno Grizzlies tommorow night at 7:05 p.m. local time.

Brad Mills, a pitcher who is almost exactly 15 years younger than me (he is 26, his birthday March 5 is a day after mine), was pitching for the 51s today in a road game at Sacramento. Mills played college baseball for the University of Arizona.

Though the two teams are in different Triple-A leagues and could only play each other in the Minor League World Series, today we are asking how far from each other these two zip codes are.

Is the answer:

A) 39 hours, 57 minutes

B) 40 hours, 57 minutes

C) 41 hours, 57 minutes

D) 42 hours, 57 minutes

PS_ The answer to last week's road quiz was A) 26 hours is the distance between New Haven, Conn., and Colorado Springs, Colo.

Special Quote of the Week- Babe Ruth

This month, we are going to feature quips from some famous baseball players. We srart with Babe Ruth (1895-1948) who was born in Baltimore, but made his fame playing for the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. Ruth hit 714 homeruns in his career, which was later eclipsed by Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds.

Ironically, Ruth and Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) the subject of the entry on our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" both died young at age 53.

Here is the quote from The Bambino:

"Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back."

Paid Political Commentary (Regarding Detroit Tigers Pitcher)

For the very first time ever on this blog, someone has asked me to post an entry about a matter which concerns them!

This does not really pertain to be a political issue, but my friend Renaldo Hernandez (pse) of Richmond, Va. (not really where he is from) wanted me to complement Detroit Tigers' pitcher Armando Galarraga (pictured here).

The Tigers pitcher apparently came very close to throwing a perfect game last night, but a bothced call by the umpire in which a player for the opposing Cleveland Indians was called 'safe at first' blew the perfect game opportunity for Galarraga.

'Hernandez' said that Galarrage exemplified classiness as he merely said that while he thought the Indians play was out that umpires make mistakes.

Apparently, the umpire looked at a video replay of the incident and he realized that he did in fact make a mistake. He called Galarraga to apologize and the Tigers pitcher was gracious in his response.

Hernandez also feels that this is a postive story which shows that athletes can display good sportsmanship, and that not all of them are spoiled rich guys on ego trips.

Hmmm....I wonder if he was refering to Tiger Woods?!

On Twitter, the RedSoxFanClub also praised the pitcher's grace even though the Boston Red Sox are rivals with the Tigers.

Now for a weather reporter in the greater Richmond-Petersburg area we turn to our meteorologist Matt Denardo.*

*-This is an actual weather reporter for a TV station in Richmond. Apparently, there is a Youtube video of him cursing on camera!