Cassius Clay / Muhammad Ali is generally considered one of the greatest heavyweights of all time by boxing commentators and historians. Ring Magazine, a prominent boxing magazine, named him number 1 in a 1998 ranking of greatest heavyweights from all eras.
ERA is a baseball statistic, which calculates how many runs a pitcher allows for each nine innings pitched. The worst ever recorded as an in-season stat was by Baltimore pitcher Bill Wight in 1956. Wight was the Orioles best pitcher, and started on opening day against Boston. He retired only one of the seven batters he faced before being sent to the showers, and gave up four runs. His next appearance, starting a game agains Washington, he did not retire any of the five batters he faced, who scored another four runs. His ERA at that point was 216.00, which means in nine full innings, he would allow the opponents 216 runs. Wight then settled down, striking out the first two batters in his next start, and by the season’s end, had a respectable ERA of 4.02 and won nine games, second best on the team.
The Philadelphia Phillies currently play baseball in CBP, Citizens Bank Park. CBP opened in 2004. Their ballparks through history include:
2004-???: CBP, Citizens Bank Park
1971-2093: Veterans Stadium, 3501 South Broad Street
1953-1975: Connie Mack Stadium, N 21st St & W Lehigh Ave
1939-1953: Shibe Park, N 21st St & W Lehigh Ave
1887-1938: Baker Bowl, Home plate at N 15th St & W Huntingdon St
The surname Baker is one of many that reflect occupations common in earlier times; another form of the name based on the medieval term for baker is Baxter. The equivalent German name is Becker; in French the corresponding names are Fournier and Boulanger.
Dusty Baker is a US Marine and share my birthday, 15 June. Tim Lincecum’s birthday is also 15 June
Dusty Springfield (née Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien) was once the best-selling female singer in the world with hits like “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.”
Miles O’Brien is the name both of a PBS science correspondent, and the chief engineer of Starfleet’s Deep Space Nine outpost in the Bajoran system (played by Colm Meaney).
Miles O’Brien is probably the smartest commentator on network news. Occasionally, you can hear his Michigan accent. He lost his left arm in a helicopter accident in the Philippines.
There are 4 lines in a barleycorn, 3 barleycorns in an inch, 12 inches in a foot. The earliest known reference to the English inch is in a table of fines for stabbings;
[QUOTE=Laws of Æthelberht]
Gif man þeoh þurhstingð, stice ghwilve vi scillingas. Gife ofer ynce, scilling. æt twam yncum, twegen. ofer þry, iii scill.
[translation: If a thigh be pierced through, for each stab six shillings; if (the wound be) above an inch, a shilling; for two inches, two; above three, three shillings.]
[/QUOTE]
Larger distances were measured with the surveyor’s rod, whose length was eventually standardized at 16½ feet. There are 4 rods in a chain, 10 chains in a furlong, 8 furlongs in a mile, and 3 miles in a league.
The basic instrument used by surveyors in colonial times was the plane surveying compass. It was also called a “circumferentor,” as it was commonly called in England.
On December 10, 1936, King Edward VIII signed his “Instrument of Abdication” renouncing the throne. Witnessed by his three surviving brothers, the Dukes of York, Gloucester and Kent, it came into force the next day when Parliament passed His Majesty’s Declaration of Abdication Act, to which Edward gave Royal Assent.
On Friday, June 10, 2016, ‘King James’, LeBron James, and the Cleveland Cavaliers lost their first home playoff game of the 2015-2016 season when they dropped game 4 of the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors.
On 24 June 1604, King James VI and I went into a panic, ordered the Prince of Wales confined and guarded in his chamber, arrested the Earl of Southampton and other nobles, and had them interrogated and their houses searched. There is no English record of the incident, which is known only because two Ambassadors wrote about it to their home governments.
(ETA: “James VI and I” — I don’t mean the King and myself! I refer to the King with Two Numbers.)
King George II reigned from 1727-1760. He was born in Germany and was the last British Monarch born outside of Great Britain. George II was succeeded by George III who reigned from 1760-1820 and got his ass kicked - TWICE! - by George Washington and Colonial Americans in the American Revolution, and then again by Americans in the War of 1812.
(Written from Colonial Williamsburg VA, on our way to Yorktown and Jamestown. Last week we were in DC, Marine Barracks at 8th & I.)
The last time the image on Canadian coins was changed was in 1952, when Queen Elizabeth II took over from King George VI.
When George II’s wife, Queen Caroline, was dying, she urged him to re-marry. Sobbing, he replied, “Non, j’aurai des maîtresses!” (“No, I’ll have mistreses!”)
With a reign of 326 days in 1936, King Edward VII was one of the shortest-reigning monarchs in British history. He was succeeded by King George VI, Edward’s youngest brother, who reigned 1936-1952 and who, together with FDR and Harry Truman, kicked Hitler’s and Hirohito’s asses in WWII.
We were at the WWII Memorial in DC last week, on the 72nd anniversary of D-Day.
William Henry Harrison holds the record for shortest term served, holding the office of presidency for 31 days before dying. Harrison was the first president to die while in office when he caught pneumonia and died on April 4, 1841
The Act of Union of the Canadas came into force in 1841. It merged Lower Canada and Upper Canada into a single British province, called Canada. It evolved into a semi-federation, with the Legislature composed of equal numbers from both parts, and sometimes passing laws which applied to all of the Province, but sometimes passing laws which only applied to one or the other part.
@#%&*