beginning of September

today marked the first day of school for the kids. some of them already started last month, while any that is left start after Labour Day. of course with the Labour day weekend is the "real" start of the CFL season with some rival games and key games. Edmonton vs Calgary and Winnipeg vs Saskatchewan have their home and home series starting this weekend. pennant races in baseball will heat up this month. with the baseball a little bit of history. 1941 season - just before the U.S. got involved with WWII - had two key events. a long games hit streak and the last man to hit .400. Joe DiMaggio hit in an incredible hit streak where he had at least one hit in 56 games. it began on May 15 against the Chicago White Sox, going 1 for 4. the streak ended July 17th in Cleveland. after that streak ended, he hit safely in 16 straight game. he hit safely in 72 of 73 games. he told teammate Phil Rizutto after the first streak ended "if i had a hit tonight i would have had $10,000. the Heinz 57 group was here." the second one was Ted Williams being the last player to hit .400, finishing at .406. he had been over .400 for most of that season and eventually started getting lower towards the end of the season. last day of the season was a double header against the Philadelphia Athletics on September 28th. he was sitting at .39955 (which rounded up to .400). Joe Cronin - Boston manager -tried to get Williams to take the day off to preserve the record (he tried this more than once), Williams told him "no way. i don't deserve it if i don't go all the way. he ended up going 6 for 8 in the double header, finishing at .406. Pete Rose in 1978 (and Willie Keeler in 1897) was the closest for consecutive hits, while Tony Gwynn, in 1994 was the closest to .400, with a .390 average at the beginning of the players strike. 75 years ago. wow.