April 23, 2015

47

Today is World Book Day.  It is also Canadian Book Day, which tends to be covered with gravy and unerringly polite.  In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, today is the Feast Day of Holy Glorious Great-martyr and Victory-bearer and Wonderworker Saint George.  April 23rd is the birthday of Baseball Hall of Fame players "Sunny Jim" Bottomley and Warren Spahn, and non-HoF players Dolph Camilli and Emilio Bonifacio (Mr Goodface!). 

Today is also the birthday of Charlie "Slats" Dorman, who played one game for the White Sox at catcher in 1923.  He went 1-for-2 in his debut, which would be promising if not for the other side of the coin.  He came into the game against the Philadelphia Athletics in the 6th inning, relieving Roy Graham (who was relieving Roy Schalk) behind the plate.  In the four innings he played, the A's went three-for-four in steals.  The final score was 9-0 A's, and Slats was never seen in the majors again.  He left baseball later that year and moved back home to San Francisco, where he joined the police force.  Late in October of 1928, he was playing a game of baseball with his Elks Lodge when he shattered his kneecap during a play.  Infection set in, and he died of pneumonia in the hospital in November of that year.  He was 30.

Some 40 years later, in a hospital near Wrigley Field (which also debuted on April 23rd), a Wonderduck was foist upon an unsuspecting world.

Birthday candle!
As has always been the case, nobody is more surprised than myself.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:22 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 259 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Happy Birthday!

Posted by: Ben at April 23, 2015 06:47 AM (S4UJw)

2 Happy birthday, and many happy returns of the day!

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at April 23, 2015 01:36 PM (ZJVQ5)

3 Congratulations on another successful trip around our closest star, good sir.

Posted by: GreyDuck at April 23, 2015 07:18 PM (/zxpg)

4 It is good that you continue to metabolize oxygen and consume rye bread.  May keep doing so for many more years to come!
Oh, and I hope you didn't try and blow out that candle...

Posted by: David at April 23, 2015 09:29 PM (+TPAa)

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What colour is a green orange?




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