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January 9, 2007 [LINK / comment]
Ripken, Gwynn to Cooperstown
It's hard to imagine two players who were more deserving to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, in terms of their accomplishments on the ballfield, and their modest, classy sportsmanship. "Iron Man" Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn, eight-time NL batting champion, are among the rare breed of superstars who defy Leo Durocher's dictum that "nice guys finish last." Both men were elected on their first opportunity and received among the highest-ever percentages of votes; see MLB.com. Goose Gossage didn't make the cut, but he edged closer to the 75% threshhold, and may finally make it next year. Mark McGwire was way down the list, but he's got plenty of chances yet to come. Like most people, I have mixed feelings about McGwire. I suppose we'll never come up with a satisfactory way to resolve the Dope Dilemma: to forgive and reward those who 'fess up, or to punish anyone suspected of artificial body enhancements, which would only keep the problem hidden under the rug.
Today's Washington Post had a good background piece on Ripken, noting that his "431 home runs and 3,184 hits were more a testament to hard work, durability and longenvity than to sheer talent or jaw-dropping power." (In that sense, ironically, he's a lot like Pete Rose.) Ripken will rank number one among all Hall of Famers in terms of total games played (3,001), consecutive games (2,632), fielding percentage for shortstops (.979), and appearances on All Star teams (19). His lifetime batting average was well below Gwynn's, however: .276 vs. .338. Both Ripken and Gwynn spent their entire careers with one team, near their home towns. It's like they were twin brothers or something...
Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 09 Jan 2007, 6: 01 PM .
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My blog practices
My general practice is to make no more than one blog post per day on any one category. For this reason, some blog posts may address more than one specific issue, as indicated by separate headings. If something important happens during the day after I make a blog post, I may add an updated paragraph or section to it, using the word "UPDATE" and sometimes a horizontal rule to distinguish the new material from the original material. For each successive day, blog posts are listed on the central blog page (which brings together all topics) from top to bottom in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the order in which the posts were originally made:
- Wild birds (LAST)
- War
- Science & Technology *
- Politics
- Latin America
- Culture & Travel *
- Canaries ("Home birds")
- Baseball (FIRST)
* part of "Macintosh & Miscellanous" until Feb. 2007
The date of each blog post refers to when the bulk of it was written, in the Eastern Time Zone. For each blog post, the time and date of the original posting (or the last update or comment thereupon) is displayed on the individual archival blog post page that appears (just before the comments section) when you click the [LINK / comments] link next to the date. Non-trivial corrections and clarifications to original blog entries are indicated by the use of [brackets] and/or strikethroughs, as appropriate so as to accurately convey both the factual truth and my original representation of it. Nobody's perfect, but I strive for continual improvement. That is also why some of the nature photos that appear on the archive pages may differ from the (inferior) ones that were originally posted.
The current "home made" blog organization system that I created, featuring real permalinks, was instituted on November 1, 2004. Prior to that date, blog posts were handled inconsistently, and for that reason the pre-2005 archives pages are something of a mess. Furthermore, my blogging prior to June 1, 2004 was often sporadic in terms of frequency.
Blog errata
(preliminary)
April 4, 2008: "Andy Ashby" should be "Andy Jones"
April 3, 2010: "Mike Morgan" should be "Nyjer Morgan"
: "" should be ""
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