Rant #2,882: Words

Good morning!
 
“What’s so good about it?” you might ask.
 
My answer would be, “I don’t know, third base.”
 
Yes, that convoluted answer, taken from Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s On First” routine, has become my standard answer over the years when I don’t have a real answer to give to you.
 
It could be worse.
 
I could reply, “Awop-bop-a-loo-mop alop-bom-bom” or whatever Little Richard sings in the song “Tutti Frutti.”
 
Do you know that today is kind of a strange date revolving around the home run for the New York Yankees?

 
First, in 1931, Yankees’ first baseman Lou Gehrig hit a home run, but was called out, and the home run rescinded, when he passed the baserunner who was on base when he hit the homer.
 
So the home run was rescinded, and as the season progressed, Gehrig and teammate Babe Ruth went back and forth leading the league in homers.
 
But because of that miscue, by the end of the season, both Gehrig and Ruth were tied for the home run crown at 46.

And that rescinded homer put Gehrig's career home total at 493, or just seven away from the hallowed 500 club. 
 

The other event revolving around the home run and the Yankees on this date was that in 1961—30 years to the day after Gehrig’s home run miscue—Roger Maris hit his first home run of the season.
 
He would hit 60 more homers that season, eclipsing Babe Ruth’s record of 60 in 1927, but Maris did it in 161 games, Ruth in 154.
 
This tarnished the new record for some, and it was a cloud over Maris and his accomplishment for years after, and in my mind, he still hasn’t gotten his due, even after his record was eclipsed by the later PED escapades of Barry Bonds and others during baseball’s steroid era.
 
But enough about baseball … what else can we talk about today?
 
How about Record Store Day?
 
This past Saturday was the 15th anniversary of this hallowed celebration of local record stores and (mainly) vinyl records, and while the day has been so diluted by having multiple such days during the year—the next one is in June, and then on Black Friday—it remains a fun day to get some interesting stuff to add to your collection—and it also helps these mainly independent stores, which are still reeling from closure during the pandemic.
 
Although I woke up really early that day, I was only the third on line when I got to my local record store, but the wait went well, as the camaraderie between those on line and our shared love of records pushed us through the time we had to wait to get into the store and get the goodies we were pining for.
 
Once inside, I pretty much got what I wanted, staying within my budget with some space to spare.
 
Others bought hundreds of dollars worth of records in just one sitting; me, I bought what fit into the budget I had and didn’t waiver at all from that amount.

 
And within that amount, I bought two David Bowie releases; a greatest hits record from The Shocking Blue (remember “Venus?”); a re-released album from John Fred and His Playboy Band (remember “Judy In Disguise?”) which I inextricably did not have in my collection; and my one real outlier, a greatest hits collection from The Psychedelic Furs that does not contain their biggest hit in the U.S., “Heartbreak Beat” (I have the original single, so no loss here).
 
I would not have bought any one of these if any of them were offered outside of Record Store Day, so I think I did well, within my budget.
 
Sure, there were probably a few things I wanted to buy but couldn’t because of that budget, but heck, I did well … and after listening and digitizing some of this stuff as we speak, I really hit the bonanza with what I bought.
 
And some of my money went to animal rescue organizations, which makes it all the better.
 
So what else about April 26 is intriguing to me and is something I want to talk about here today?
 
Not really much of anything.
 
I guess you can say that I am content with what I have, hitting a home run and budgeting myself with what I had to say today.
 
(Get the references to the two things I did talk about today in that one sentence?)
 
Look, I am absorbing all I can in my final days of being 64 years old, so maybe you have to excuse me for my interaction with you today.
 
I expect April 26, 2022 to be a fine day, another day leading up to my big day, and that is just the way it is going to be.
 
Remember, “I don’t know, third base.”