August is National Peach Month in the USA. The phrase, “You’re a real peach,” originated from the tradition of giving a peach to the friend you liked.
Tyrus Raymond “Ty” Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed “The Georgia Peach,” was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the last six as the team’s player-manager, and finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics. In 1936 Cobb received the most votes of any player on the inaugural Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, receiving 222 out of a possible 226 votes. In 1999, editors at The Sporting News ranked Ty Cobb 3rd on their list of “Baseball’s 100 Greatest Players”.
Cobb is widely credited with setting 90 MLB records during his career. He still holds several records as of the end of the 2014 season, including the highest career batting average (.366 or .367, depending on source) and most career batting titles with 11 (or 12, depending on source)
Since it’s only appropriate…
Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra (May 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) catcher, manager, and coach. He played almost his entire 19-year baseball career (1946–65) for the New York Yankees. He is widely regarded as one of the best catchers in baseball history.[1] He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.
And, of course, he was the inspiration for the beloved cartoon character Yogi Bear.
Yogi Berra, a childhood friend in St. Louis’ “Dago Hill” neighborhood (now just “The Hill”) with fellow major league catcher Joe Garagiola, served on a rocket-launching boat supporting the D-Day invasion on the Normandy beaches.
Berra’s career spanned 19 years and 2,120 regular season games, almost all with the Yankees. The only exception was in his very last season when he played 4 games for the Mets. So, 2,116 games for the Yankees and 4 for the Mets. He played in 75 postseason games, all for the Yankees.
Yogi Bear’s name was similar to that of Yogi Berra, who was known for his amusing quotes, such as “half the lies they tell about me aren’t true.” Berra sued Hanna-Barbera for defamation, but their management claimed that the similarity of the names was just a coincidence. Berra withdrew his suit, but the defense was considered implausible and sources now report that Berra was the inspiration for the name
Yogi Berra caught the only perfect game in World Series history, thrown by the Yankees’ Don Larsen in 1956 against the Brooklyn Dodgers. A wire-service photo of Berra leaping into Larsen’s arms after the last out quickly became iconic.
That perfect game was in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers (yeah!) 2-0.
For the Dodgers, their lineup had some notable names. The losing pitcher was Sal Maglie, and his catcher was Roy Campanella. Pee Wee Reese played second base, Duke Snider was the center fielder, Jackie Robinson was at third base, Gil Hodges at first, and Carl Furillo in right field.
For the Yankees, Mickey Mantle hit a solo home run in the bottom of the 4th to put the Yankees up 1-0. Then in the bottom of the 6th, the second run was scored when right fielder Hank Bauer singled to score third baseman Andy Carey from 2nd base.
Don Larsen threw 97 pitches in that perfect game. And Yogi Berra, the catcher, gets credit for calling Larsen’s pitches.
Roy Campanella (November 19, 1921 – June 26, 1993), nicknamed “Campy”, was an American baseball player, primarily as a catcher. The Philadelphia native played for the Negro leagues and Mexican League for several seasons before moving into the minor leagues in 1946. He made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 1948. His playing career ended in 1958 when he was paralyzed by an automobile accident.
Widely considered to have been one of the greatest catchers in the history of the game,[2] Campanella played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s and 1950s. After his playing career, Campanella held positions in scouting and community relations with the Dodgers. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.
The Sporting News ranked the ten greatest catchers of all time to be:
- Gabby Hartnett
- BIll Dickey
- Gary Carter
- Carlton Fisk
- Ivan Rodriguez
- Mike Piazza
- Mickey Cochrane
- Roy Campanella
- Johnny Bench
- Yogi Berra
Way to go, Yogi.
Link: http://www.sportingnews.com/list/4637537-best-mlb-catchers-all-time-bench-berra-carter-piazza-fisk
Roy Campanella, who had played in the Negro Leagues and Mexican League before signing with the Dodgers, never played a game in Los Angeles. He was rendered a quadriplegic in an automobile accident over the winter after the team left Brooklyn. “Campy” was the second black, after Jackie Robinson, to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and was also elected to the Mexican Professional Baseball Hall Of Fame.
Cooperstown, New York, the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, was originally named the Village of Otsego in 1807 (after Lake Ostego, where it lies) and changed it’s name to Cooperstown in 1812 to honor the town’s founder, William Cooper.
William Cooper also was the father of the noted American writer James Fenimore Cooper, who lived there for most of his life.
Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech in 1860, detailing his views at the time of slavery, are credited by some with winning him the Republican nomination for President. Cooper Union was and is a privately funded college located in Cooper Square in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, built on a radical new model of American higher education based on founder Peter Cooper’s fundamental belief that an education “equal to the best technology schools [then] established” should be accessible to those who qualify, independent of their race, religion, sex, wealth or social status, and should be “open and free to all”. The school reluctantly began charging some tuition (still low) in 2014.
The Cooper Car Company was founded in 1946 by Charles Cooper and his son John Cooper. Together with John’s boyhood friend, Eric Brandon, they began by building racing cars in Charles’ small garage in Surbiton, Surrey, United Kingdom in 1946. Through the 1950s and early 1960s, they reached auto racing’s highest levels as their rear-engined, single-seat cars altered the face of Formula One and the Indianapolis 500, and their Mini Cooper dominated rally racing. Due in part to Cooper’s legacy, Britain remains the home of a thriving racing industry, and the Cooper name lives on in the Cooper versions of the Mini production cars that are still built in England, but are now owned and marketed by BMW.
Bavarian Motor Works symbol represents an aircraft propeller, with white blades cutting through a blue sky.
That’s what I thought, too, and I’ve been riding BMW motorcycles for 25 years. But…
Posted last month in this game:
The Free State of Bavaria is a federal state of Germany, in the southeast of the country. With an area of 70,548 square kilometres (27,200 sq mi), it is the largest state, making up almost a fifth of the total land area of Germany, and with 12.5 million inhabitants is Germany’s second most populous state. Munich, Bavaria’s capital and largest city, is the third largest city in Germany.
Bavaria is the largest of Germany’s 16 states. Bremen is the smallest.
The Brothers Grimm folk tale “The Town Musicians of Bremen” tells of a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster (or hen), all past their prime years in life and usefulness on their respective farms, soon to be discarded or mistreated by their masters. One by one they leave their homes and set out together. They decide to go to Bremen, known for its freedom, to live without owners and become musicians there. (“Something better than death we can find anywhere”). They never reach Bremen, having settled into a cottage from which they scared some robbers.