You could look it up

My daily stats newsletter from baseball-reference.com has informed me that today is the 164th birthday of The Only Nolan. (And that it's Joe Niekro's birthday and that he is dead like The Only Nolan, which is surprising. I see he died in 2006 of a brain aneurysm, which I either completely missed or totally forgot. The aughts are an almost total black hole of baseball for me ... after the Luis Gonzales broken-bat single off Mariano Rivera that won the 2001 World Series I really don't remember much of anything until Madison Bumgarner mowing down the Royals in 2014. (This year Stephen Strasburg got the World Series MVP with 14.1 IP, a 2.51 ERA, and a 1.047 WHIP. In 2014, Madison Bumgarner got the World Series MVP with 21 IP, a 0.43 ERA, and a 0.476 WHIP. (Last year David Price should have got the World Series MVP with 13.2 IP, a 1.98 ERA, and a 0.951 WHIP.) I saw something yesterday saying Strasburg had a postseason for the ages this year ... Bumgarner just was the best pitcher I've ever seen in the 2014 postseason. (There are, of course, different ways of cashing out "best pitcher I've ever seen". For single innings' worth of samples of utter unhittability, I think Craig Kimbrel is the best pitcher I've ever seen. In terms of sustained crazy-movement-on-his-stuff-ness, Dave Stieb is the best pitcher I've ever seen. In terms of being dominant for year and years and years, Nolan Ryan is the best pitcher I've ever seen. In terms of being a starting pitcher who makes opposing hitters not want to come to the ballpark that day, Randy Johnson is the best pitcher I've ever seen (though Pedro Martinez is right there with him). But for completely dominating the opposition when it counts, I have never seen anything, and I don't think there has ever been anything, like Madison Bumgarner in 2014. (And I have got to fit Roy Halladay in there somewhere, but he's harder to characterize. He was just my guy, like Mats Sundin was my guy. And kinda like Rafael Palmeiro was my favourite hitter for years, and Don Mattingly before him.)) Which is partly because the aughts were the bulk of the Blue Jays' dark ages, and partly because the baseball playoffs in 2014 were kind of a thing that hauled me a bit out of my own black hole.) So of course I looked up The Only Nolan and it turns out he played in the 1880s and was probably born in Trenton, Canada, which I presume means Trenton, Ontario, which is the military town directly south of here on Lake Ontario, though he was raised in Paterson, New Jersey, which is a place I have heard of because of the Jim Jarmusch movie with that really tall guy in it who was in the military before he became an actor. Also, according to Uncle Wikipedia, The Only Nolan was "expelled by the [Indianapolis Blues] on August 14[, 1878] when he told the team he was going to a funeral, but instead went drinking." After being reinstated in 1881 he was fined $100 for missing a game due to a train wreck. Later in 1881 he was blacklisted from the National League "for 'confirmed dissipation and general insubordination'." He was reinstated again in 1883 but released for disciplinary reasons. He finished his major league career with a record of 23-52 with a 2.98 ERA; he went back to Paterson, became a cop, and died of nephritis at the age of 55.

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Currently under my porch -3.6. Currently at Crowe Lake: -6.1. High there today: 2.2. Got a few inches of snow last night that stuck around through the day today. Usually I think early-season snow is pretty great but given the forecasts it looks like winter has just started now and that is not cool.