Historically Speaking: 3-11-09

Gotta be brief with today's installment as a work training has taken me south to the Kansas/Oklahoma border, where they're still installing telephone poles and the local Intranets are powered by a trio of wind and water mills. I've got some interesting observations to throw down about this town, and I might be able to tackle them later, once I'm done maiming some pedestrians. In the meantime, today's history exercise can be found...you know where.


* The year was 1948 when Reginald Weir became the first black tennis player to participate in the U.S. Open.

* In 1979, Los Angeles King Randy Holt chalked up nine penalties (totalling 67 minutes) in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers. These trips to the sin bin all took place in the first period.

* Baseball's Hall of Fame welcomed Johnny Mize and Rube Foster to Cooperstown in 1981.

* Six years later, Wayne Gretzky tallied NHL career point 1500. His retirement point total would be almost double.

* Major League Baseball, in all its swift-and-timely endeavors, banned tetrahydrogestrinone today in 2004. The anabolic steroid -- frequently referred to as THG, or The Clear for its allegedly safe, invisible detection status -- was manufactured by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative from gestrinone, a substance used in gynecology.

And today's quote of the day came from the mouth of...



...Hall of Fame former New York Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto, who once said, "I'm glad I don't play anymore. I could never learn all those handshakes."