Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day. First called Armistice Day, commemorating the end of hostilities in World War I at 11 am on November 11, 1918. We honor the veterans in our lives, like my friend Reid, who served at military bases in South Carolina, New Orleans, and Alaska. Many baseball players served in the military. A possible military manager was Dusty Baker.

When a former military person speaks, I always try to pay close attention, or like at a baseball game when they're honoring someone, or when the veterans stand before the playing of the national anthem. Wednesday night my golfing partner Paul was honored between quarters by the Hawks (in the red shirt on the right).

The guy at Uni Watch thinks honoring the military is a waste of time, the flyovers and giant flags on the field and such. One thing I'm not crazy about is when teams wear the camo. Also when the wear pink for cancer. Football teams only play like 12-16 games, so they're only wearing their home uniform 6 or 8 times. Then they add camo or pink or some special uniform or three, and it's like a different costume every week. I wish they'd just wear their regular uniforms.

Basketball is worse. NBA has all kind of uniforms. Some are okay. Just hard to figure out who is playing some time. Glad Kirby and Saban and Dabo stick to the basics.

Fred Hickman just passed away. He was 66. Eddie's good friend passed away at 62. Also legendary graphic artist Wayland Moore, designer of the Braves iconic feather uniforms – but he was 87. More on Wayland next week. 

JOE DiMAGGIO  [SABR Bio] trails only Yogi Berra in number of World Series rings won. Yogi earned ten World Series rings. Joe won nine: 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1947, 1949, 1950 & 1951. Only in 1942 did he play in a WS that the Yankees lost. In his first MVP season, he drove in more runs than the number of games he played in. In 1939, DiMaggio had 126 RBI in only 120 games, and won the AL MVP by a comfortable margin. In three additional seasons, he had more RBI than games played: 1937 (151/167); 1940 (132/133); & 1948 (153/155). Joe married actress Dorothy Arnold after meeting her during the filming of a bit part in a Hollywood-produced movie that, in spite of its name, was filmed in the Bronx. Joltin' Joe turned his lonely eyes to 21-year old Dorothy Arnold, singer, dancer & actress, after they met on the 1937 set of the long-forgotten film Manhattan Merry-Go-Round. In it, DiMaggio plays himself, but is mistaken for a famous singer, propped up in front of a microphone & forced to croak out the song "Have You Ever Been Lonely?"  All agreed that Joe had not missed his calling. Arnold's part was barely more than his as she was only an uncredited dancer.