Marked This Day

On this day in 1971, Ken Harrelson decided to retire from baseball to pursue a professional golf career. This wasn’t exactly a Michael Jordan situation. Harrelson was never considered to be the best in the game, he had recently suffered a broken leg, and a rookie had been called up to replace him. But you have to admire his gumption. "Later baseball, I’m gonna go be a golfer now." He did alright. Missing the cut for ‘72 British Open by a stroke probably being his biggest highlight. But don’t go feeling sorry for ol' Hawk, as he is better known. Legend has made him the father of the modern batting glove when he wore--you guessed it--a golf glove to the plate. He also went back to baseball after his brief golf career and is one of the longest tenured and better known announcers currently working in baseball. Some of this has to do with the absolutely epic rants he can go on, but that’s neither here nor there. Because ol’ Hawk Harrelson is a perfect example that our lives ...

Numbers are important. I’m not very good with them, but that doesn’t mean I discount their importance. For one, they give value. A five dollar bill doesn’t mean much without the 5 on it. They differentiate players in sports and can become iconic. Every basketball fan can tell you that Jordan was 23, Bird was 33, Magic 32, and Irving 6. And some people really dig numbers. Dan Brown basically wrote a bestseller about them. Okay, most of that book was about religion and Jesus and Mary Magdalene, but there were a lot of numbers in there. And numbers help designate time. They are how we know age and how we can remember important events. But sometimes, every so often, the numbers themselves can become the important event. Like on this day in 1989. For one second on this day the clock looked like this: 1:23:45, 6-7-89. I know! Isn’t that amazing? Numerical order from 1 to 9. Crazy! What’s even more amazing? If you were a child born at that exact time, and statistically speaking there had to h...