Toby’s Sunday Nine: Tom Grieve’s Birthday

Toby descends from a pack of wild dogs that have roamed the mystical lands of Transvaal where he’s been waiting to read the first boxscores of the 2012.  He’s made his way to the White Tank Mountains for Rangers Spring Training and is giving TR Sunday off so Toby can bark a few very random baseball and non-baseball thoughts.

1. Tom Grieve,  the first round draft pick of the 1966 Washington Senators, who has spent all but 2 seasons of his baseball career with the Senators/Rangers franchise is  64 years young today.

2. Also born on this date in Voss, Norway one of the greatest college football coaches in history: Knute Rockne.

3. Speaking of the first Spring Training box scores: the Baseball Hall of Fame credits Henry Chadwick (the patron saint of Postcards From Elysian Fields) with the invention of the modern day box score, as well as the statistical formulas for batting average and earned run average.

4. Today in history – you pick the most significant event: a) 1933 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated to his first term as president in Washington, D.C   b) 1789 – the first Congress of the United States meets in the New York and declares and the Constitution is in effect  c) 1634 – Sammuel Cole opens the first tavern in the City of Boston Massachusetts

5. The passing of Davy Jones this week brings to mind a couple of trivial pursuit facts about the Monkees:  Stephen Stills (Crosby, Nash, Stills and Young and the Buffalo Springfield) recommended Peter Tork to the producers of the show.   Texan Mike Nesmith’s mother was the inventor of Liquid Paper.  Mickey Dolenz was a child TV star for 3 seasons (1956-1959)  as “Circus Boy”  under the name Mickey Braddock. Davy Jones was on the Ed Sullivan show the same night as The Beatles first appearance, he performed a song from “Oliver” – the show he was in (and was nominated for a Tony award) in 1964.

6. Keeping up with former Rangers:  RHP Tommy Hunter has been bothered by back soreness and has been scratched from his first Spring Training start on Tuesday.   From the Washington Post: the competition for Nationals utility infielder is between Steve Lambardozzi and former Ranger IF Andres Blanco.

7. Strangest diagnosis of the week:  Mets 1B Ike Davis has “valley fever” which is described as “a fungal infection that is released from the dirt in desert regions of the Southwest and is inhaled. It can be stirred up by construction and winds”  Davis lives in Arizona during the off-season, and has been given a few days off to recover. Hope it’s not contagious

8. Speaking of the Mets, here is what Mets owner Fred  Wilpon said this week “I was tired of throwing money at something and not getting success”   Without  further comment – growl!

9. Finally – a little fun with numbers.  Taking the AL Standings from 2000-2011 and applying the new “extra Wild Card” format, the following AL  teams would have made the playoffs:

2000 – Cleveland

2001 – Minnestoa

2002 – Boston or Seattle

2003 – Seattle

2004 – Oakland

2005 – Cleveland

2006 – Anaheim

2007- Detroit or Seattle

2008 – New York

2009 – Texas

2010 – Boston

2011 – Boston

Woof! Woof! – Toby