Welcome to so many
new folks!
We had a great
crowd from Gojo last week, and a several of them signed up.
I have also dug
up my older signup sheets and corrected the distribuition list, so lots more of
you folks are getting this.
Please feel
free to forward this to anyone you like and invite them out to play.
Remember – it’s
totally free to play, and there are excellent prizes.
(Want to get
OFF the list? Respond to this with “HOLYHECK ROB! STOP SENDING THESE!” and I will do so.)
* * * * * * * * *
The Controversial Case of the Crafted Cork
Center! Solved?
Last week’s
Question 10 caused a bit of a hullabaloo.
The question,
as written, was : “What material is at
the very center of an MLB regulation baseball?”
The answer I had
was simply CORK, but the responses were pretty evenly split between cork and
rubber.
My spot judgment
was to go with the answer I had. (Remember Rule #5 on your score sheets – “The decisions
of the MCs are final.”)
Afterward, one
of you mentioned she had actually watched a movie from a baseball manufacturer
with her class that showed RUBBER centers in the manufacturing process.
(She pulled it
up on YouTube and showed it to me.)
This got me
into research mode.
The internet
was little help at first.
Several sites
gave me conflicting info, so I looked up the actual rules from MLB:
From there,
you can pull up the full rules, and sure enough in here:
I looked down
to Rule 1.09 where I found this:
Rule 1.09 The ball shall be a sphere formed by yarn
wound around a small core of cork, rubber or similar
material,
covered with two strips of white horsehide
or cowhide, tightly stitched together.
It shall weigh not less than five nor more
than 5 1/4 ounces avoirdupois
and measure not less than nine nor more
than 9 1/4 inches in circumference.
It seemed
pretty definitive.
Proud of
myself, I sent in my proof to our writing staff.
This was their
response:
Thanks for the inquiry about what's in the
center of a baseball.
Like you, I found conflicting and/or
incomplete information, not only from the MLB site,
but also from Rawlings, the official supplier
of Major League Baseball.
So I ended up calling the company and talking
to a product specialist. This is what he said:
"Official Major
League baseballs have a cushioned cork core, with wool wrappings, and a cowhide
leather covering.
While Rawlings does make balls with rubber
cores for other organizations (I assume
Little League and such),
the very center of a big-league baseball is
made of cork."
He also mentioned that every Major League baseball is
still handmade, which kinda blew my mind.
Apparently, they tried to automate the
process in the 70s or 80s but the balls were of inferior quality.
So I'd say
that's as definitive of an answer as we're going to get.
I think the
key phrase here is "very center"; even if the cushion around the
cork is made of rubber,
cork is what
is at the exact center point of
the ball.
I’ll consider
this settled.
* * * * * * * * *
LIGHTHOUSE
INFO!
Info on the
Portage Lakes Beer Tour – Starting September 2nd!
You know the
Lighthouse has live music, right? Here’s
the band schedule
through the end of the month!
* * * * * * * *
*
LEAGUE
PLAY STARTS TONIGHT! (or actually, Sunday. . . .)
League play
goes for 12 weeks.
Show up and
play as normal. (See me if you have not
registered on the LastCallUSA Website.
You can play
as much as you want, but only your top 6 scores will count for finals.
Top teams (from ALL LastCallUSA sites) will
compete in the Finals on Dec. 8.
TOP PRIZE is for the $1000 (I did the math,
and it turns out that you could afford to buy MORE THAN 57 ITEMS from the
McDonalds Dollar Menu!)
(Remember you can only have 6
players per team during league play.)
Begin Date: August
26th
Final Week:
November 11th
Finals: Saturday,
December 8th at Noon (location TBA)
* * * * * * * *
*
One of you
drew this lovely Trivia Turkey! on
the back of an extra answer sheet a few weeks ago.
I got a kick
out of it, and I thought you might too.
(Don’t click
on that if you are offended by foul-mouthed, anatomically improbable,
pilgrim-garbed fowl.)
* * * * * * * *
*
Have
you visited the Last Call USA website and
clicked on the “Hints & News” Link at the bottom of the page?
Really?
It’s free
hints.
You like
hints, don’t you?
You don’t?
Are you some
kind of freak?
* * * * * * * *
*
RANDOM CONTEST
This distinguished gent retired from
the US Navy as a Rear Admiral, and received the Medal
of Honor, as well as several
awards and citations from the US government, including:
- Navy Cross
- Navy Distinguished Service Medal with Gold Star
- Legion of Merit with Gold Star
- Distinguished Flying Cross
- Navy Commendation Medal
- Lifesaving Medal
- Victory Medal
- American Campaign Medal
- Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal
- European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
- World War Two Victory Medal
In spite of
his distinguished military career, he was awarded the Medal of Honor in peacetime, by a
special act of Congress.
Who is he, and
why was he so honored?
First person
to tell me (correctly, and in person) before 7:20 pm tonight will win a good
prize.
The second
person will win a crummy prize.
The third
person will get my heartfelt congratulations.
There won’t be
a fourth person, because I know only 2
of you even read this far in the email.
See you tonight!
Trivially,
Rob Core
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