Odds and ends July 4

Just a few things today as we approach July 4th. This being a U.S. holiday and you think of baseball. Well I heard today that there was another way to get a runner out other than catching a fly or throwing to a base before the runner or tagging him out. you could as wickepidia states: Plugging (or Soaking) the Runner - throwing the ball at runner to put him out (illegal after 1845).

Now that would hurt.

Also on the baseball theme. 70 yrs ago on July 4th is the anniversary of the speech by Lou Gehrig. Here is a clip of it.

Lou Gehrig's Farewell Speech

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure I'm lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies - that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter - that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know. So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for."

The last thing is we are flying to Ontario on July 4th for a holiday and my competition at the Canadian Horseshoe pitching Championships. I will try and keep you posted as what we do and see and how I do at the tournament. Ok wish me to do my best.

see you later