Mazel Tov to Ian Kinsler on his appearance for the first time on baseball’s Hall of Fame ballot. He’ll almost certainly fall short, but it’s a very nice honor. He’s Jewish and is listed in Wikipedia as “American-Israeli” because he made aliyah in 2020, i.e., he emigrated to Israel and became an Israeli citizen.
Ian played eight seasons for Texas and four for Detroit, was an all-star four times, and won two Gold Gloves at 2B. He batted .269 and had 1,999 hits (d’oh!). I was surprised to see he hit 257 home runs, for three years hitting 28, 30, and 31. Good power for a little guy. In 2014, his first year with Detroit, he led the majors with 726 plate appearances and 684 at bats. The man showed up for work.
He was a gonif, Hebrew for thief. He is the all-time stolen base leader for Jewish players with 243. Kevin Youkilis and he were friends. Kevin is also Jewish and was an infielder, mostly with Boston. Kinsler said whenever he met him on the bases during a game, Youk would make some Jewish reference, like “Happy Passover.”
Kinsler finished his career with the last-place Padres in 2019. His very last game found him, of all places, on the mound. The Pods were down 10-2 and called on Kinsler to mop up the ninth inning. He hadn’t pitched since Pony League. He hit a batter and gave up a hit, but then got a double play, walked two, and got the last batter to line out. So he is in the record books with an ERA of 0.00. He said his dad made him choose between pitching and being a position player when he was 13 and he chose the latter. “Maybe I missed my calling.” When he came up to bat in the bottom of that inning — his last at-bat — he homered.
Here he is, with the whole mishpocha, at his induction into the Texas Rangers HOF.
Kilroy was here. You know about that from WWII? GIs were finding it and putting it everywhere they went during the war. Here’s what it looks like:
The origin is most often credited to James J. Kilroy, a shipyard inspector during the war. He chalked the words on bulkheads to show that he had been there and inspected the riveting in the newly constructed ship. As a joke, troops began placing the graffiti wherever they (the US forces) landed, claiming it was already there when they arrived. It became a source of comfort when found by troops. It was even planted in Stalin’s private bathroom during the Potsdam Conference (and it freaked the f*cker out).
It was so important a phenomenon that it’s part of the WWII Memorial in Washington DC. You can find it inscribed in two places (if you know where to look). I learned about it from today’s puzzle in the New Yorker. Joe Heller was in it too — clued with the play he wrote, “We Bombed in New Haven.”
The NYT puzzle today had a simple but nicely executed theme: a vowel ladder. The five theme answers all started with P[blank]SS and the blanks were filled in by AEIOU. So they were PASSINGFAD, PESSIMISTIC, PISSEDOFF, POSSIBILITY, and PUSSYFOOTS. The first and last (both ten letters) were placed symmetrically with each other, as were the second and fourth (both eleven letters). PISSED OFF was centered. So graceful. Symmetry is required by the NYT.
The constructor was concerned whether “pissed off” would be acceptable, but they’ve been tossing so many “asses” in lately, it’s clear The Times has been a changin’. A smattering of the Commentariat was miffed.
We turned one clue/answer over to our Dirty Old Man Dept for them to drool over: at 11D, for the clue “Height of fashion” the answer was HEMLINE. We sent Phil out on the assignment with the proviso that he had to keep it tasteful for once. Nothing too hot. Thank God he didn’t listen.
From The Onion: Study: Overuse Of Hair Detangler Giving Rise To Product-Resistant Supertangles
Getting tired. See you next time.
The Wellington Files 