Mullings by Rich Galen | Secret Decoder Ring for June 11, 2001

Presented By

Just Throw Strikes
Monday June 11, 2001

TITLE: "Just Throw Strikes" The advice given to every pitcher who ever

stepped to a mound - from the 46 foot mound of Little League, to the full 60' 6" of the mound in the seventh game of a Major League World Series. Just throw strikes. Get the ball over the plate and make the batter do something with it. Or, as Alexander Cartwright who is credited with writing down the first codified rules of baseball in 1845 put it: "Let him hit it, you've got fielders behind you."
Pretty good advice in a number of contexts.

"…to solve the world's problems …" The phrase "coffee klatch", according to Merriam-Webster's, is from the German "Kaffeeklatch." Kaffee= coffee. Klatch = gossip.

"... And we don't cry..." One of the great lines from the 1992 film "A League of Their Own" in which the coach (played by Tom Hanks) of a professional women's basball team exclaims, "There's no crying in baseball!"

"… Steee-rike!…" Among the above mentioned rules, number 11 was: "Three balls being struck at and missed and the last one caught, is a hand-out; if not caught is considered fair, and the striker bound to run."

"…syllogism…" A term of formal logic which consists of a major premise, a minor premise and a conclusion.
From Encyclopedia.com: A syllogism is a mode of argument that forms the core of the body of Western logical thought. Aristotle defined syllogistic logic, and his formulations were thought to be the final word in logic; they underwent only minor revisions in the subsequent 2,200 years. Every syllogism is a sequence of three propositions such that the first two imply the third, the conclusion.

"… Sunday LA Times piece …" Here is the LA Times article about the financial incentives to reduce energy usage.

"… Dick Gephardt …" The Minority Leader of the U.S. House who twice had to present the Speaker's gavel to Newt Gingrich.

Drawing by Eleanor Mill Drawing by Walt Disney Studios

"…Drummond Ayres …" Here's the entire item in Ayres' column:

Gore Gets Kerry Place at Mass for Moakley
Here is a postscript on the funeral Mass offered June 1 in Boston for Rep. Joe Moakley:
News photographs taken in the church showed the front row occupied by, from left, President Bush, Acting Gov. Jane M. Swift, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and his wife, Victoria, former Vice President Al Gore, Representative David E. Bonior of Michigan and former President Bill Clinton.
But the way Mr. Moakley's aides tell it, the official seating chart called for a different order. They say Mr. Gore was supposed to be in Row 3 but somehow ended up in the Row 1 spot reserved for John Kerry, Massachusetts's other senator and, like Mr. Gore, a possible Democratic contender for president in 2004.
"Some noses got out of joint, and there was some stirring when Gore suddenly showed up and took the seat," one aide to Mr. Moakley recalled. "But Kerry handled it well. He just moved back."
An aide to Mr. Gore said the former vice president "sat where it was indicated he should sit."

Mullings' Catchy Caption of the Day:

Throwin' Strikes

Photo: REUTERS/Mike Theiler ____________________________________________________________________________________

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