Talking Sports: A real page turner

When I was a little boy I spent as much time outdoors as I could. I was the type of kid who often came home with scraped knees and dirty clothes. But sometimes it rained and I needed something to occupy my time.

Last week I took possession of something I haven’t owned in a decade or more. There was a time when I would purchase one annually. I even used to add one to my Christmas list as a young boy.

Since it’s relatively inexpensive, it was one of the things on the list I actually got. Perhaps its because of the Internet that I got out of the habit of this annual purchase.

When I first came across a volume titled, “The Information Please Almanac,” I became absolutely engrossed with it. I’m sure I burried my head in its pages for hours upon my first encounter--and I have certainly done so many times since.

I don’t know what it is, but I must have a certain taste for large volumes of useless information.

As I discovered upon reacquiring an almanac, this one called “The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2014,” I learned that it can’t be replaced by the Internet.

While the Internet is a wonderful source for looking up things one wants to know, an almanac is a much better tool for looking up things which I never had any interest in knowing--and yet somehow I’m drawn to these useless facts.

Maybe that’s why I remember that 13th president Millard Fillmore was born Jan. 7, 1800 or 37th president Richard Nixon on Jan. 9, 1913. These are facts I must have known since Mr. Nixon occupied the White House. I was very young then and I haven’t forgotten.

You’ll not be surprised to know that knowledge of these details has proven utterly useless to me. They have given me no advantage in life whatsoever.

Inside the pages of the almanac are facts about elections back to the time of George Washington. There are figures on employment rates, countries of the world, states of America, presidents and their vice presidents.

What’s the capital of Oregon? Salem.

There’s also a sports section in the almanac. As I looked through the 2014 version (as I have done countless times with editions long since disintegrated) I couldn’t find the name of Ray Ewry.

I think that’s how he spelled his name.

During the Summer Olympic Games around the turn of the 20th Century he was a dominant force in the Standing Broad (Long) Jump and Standing High Jump. Just like the Olympics eliminated his event, so too has the almanac removed his accomplishments from its pages.

Oh well. Guess I’ll have to look him up on the Internet.

Ewry was just one of countless names I learned and never forgot from reading the sports pages of the almanac. It was there I learned that Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs when his name was still first on the list.

But it wasn’t the name of the known greats that interested me so much, it was the other names. The ones we’ve never heard of.

Did you know Sam Crawford hit a remarkable 16 home runs for Cincinnati in 1901? That may not sound like much but it wasn’t until Frank Schulte hit 21 in 1911 for Chicago in 1911 that his feat was bettered in the National League.

Of Course, Socks Seybold hit 16 for the American League’s Philadelphia A’s in 1902.

The only thing I don’t like about the almanac I purchased is that it doesn’t go back far enough. None of the all-time baseball lists extend further than 1901. Information Please went all the way back--lots of 19th century baseball stuff. The ERA list only retreats to 1977 in my edition.

Somehow the names from the late 70s aren’t as interesting to me. I’ve seen 1977 and 1978 ERA champs John Candelaria and Craig Swan pitch live.

I prefer unearthing the names of those I never heard of before from the 1800s. I know what Craig Swan looks like. He played for my favorite Mets. As for those heroes of the 19th century, I’ll just imagine they had long handlebar mustaches.

I liked Swan though. I played softball with him once in the mid 80s. Amazing how far he could hit a softball when he couldn’t hit a baseball a lick.

Since baseball is such a numbers game, I think I liked looking up baseball stats the most.

Baseball and hockey were my favorite sports growing up. I won’t bore anybody here with much hockey stuff. I know that’s not too big around here. But I’ll add a little known football fact--one I didn’t find in the almanac.

Only a few years ago I learned that ex-Bengal and Jets quarterback Boomer Esiason wore Number 7 his whole career becasue his favorite hockey player growing up was Rod Gilbert. Really.

Gilbert was my favorite hockey player growing up. I like Esiason more now than I used to.

Gilbert’s name is in the almanac though. Look under NHL Hall of Fame.

Here’s another little known fact: Read too much of the almanac and you just might end up like Cheers character Cliff Claven.

I think I’ll stop now.