Trivial

So none of my imaginary readers knew the answer to my question from last post.  (Or it was such an obvious answer, they didn’t bother to fill me in.)  Luckily my sports savvy brother-in-law helped me out via Facebook (and he probably didn’t even have to look it up, da rat!)

The lady in the cover is Leo Durocher’s wife, actress Laraine Day, who was often referred to as the “first lady of baseball.”  So there you have it.  Apparently she also wrote a book while still married to him called Day with the Giants.  Get it?  Day?  Laraine Day?  Okay then. 

So that’s one thing I found out thanks to a tip from B-I-L and a 2am insomnia suffering surf of Wikipedia.  Another thing I found out is that Leo Durocher coined the phrase, “Nice guys; finish last.”  That’s crazy to me that we not only know where that saying came from, but that it came from a Giant.  As a geek, I’ve used that quote many a time to get through yet another round of not getting the girl.  I’m sure we’ve all been there, right fellas?  Right?  Uh…

Moving on. 

Somehow my Wikipedia exploration led me to Willie McCovey, whom I have heard of before, so I guess I’m not completely hopeless.  In the 1962 World Series, he did not get a base hit that would have probably won it for the Giants.  Fairly sad, but what’s interesting is that Charles Schulz made not one, but two Peanuts strips about it.  Check it:

So either Schulz was a Giants fan, or was just rooting for them in that particular Series.  Maybe he just hated the Yankees.  I know eventually he made it out here to Santa Rosa, but I think that was around 1969, and these strips are from December 1962 and January 1963.  So…who knows?  I just thought it was cool. 

I’ve officially posted about a bunch of stuff everyone already knows about.  Go me!