Sifting through all of the emails, it looks like there were two highlights from Joe. One was a case of timing -- during the first inning of the first game of the 2007 season, Joe wanted to make one thing clear:
No, I don't care all that much about statistics. You can use the
statistics to embellish the point, just don't let it be the point.
Thank God he hasn't changed his mind. It's going to be a good year for us.
Next up: the answer to the trivia question of the night, which was "Who has hit the most Opening Day home runs?" The answer was Frank Robinson, with eight, which, if you think about it, is a lot of Opening Day home runs. Joe's reaction:
That's all?
Many readers noted that Joe continued to complain about how low a number eight was. Emailer Tommy did the math:
The numbers: Robinson averaged one HR for every 4.8 games played. Robinson played 21 seasons, so he "should" have hit 4.4 Opening Day HR's. The fact that Robinson hit 8 is actually remarkable.
And according to emailer Todd, Robinson might have only played in 20 Opening Day games. It gets crazier. Apparently, Joe came up with a theory why Robinson was only credited with those 8 home runs:
Perhaps the Opening Day HR that Robinson hit when he was a player-manager didn't count in the total because he was not just a player. He must have repeated his theory three times before his partner gently informed him that, yes, that HR counted as part of the record.
Labels: joe morgan
