As you may know, I am a bit of a history buff and two things
happened in sports very recently that hasn't been seen for a few decades and
others a full century. I'm not too crazy on horse racing, but I couldn't help
to be captivated by the three major horse races that happen every year since they started back in 1875: The
Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. If a horse can win
all three races then they accomplish a rare feat of winning the Triple Crown.
Since I do have Asperger's, number and odd facts are things I can really get into because
of the logic that is involved. The last winner was a horse named 'Affirmed'
back in 1978. There have only been 12 horses that have ever won all three races
and that twelfth horse was American Pharoah. I realize that I misspelled
"Pharoah" because when the name for the horse was turned in, the name
was misspelled and it stuck.
In 1978, I was only about nine-years-old
when the last horse won all three races. To me, this was a rare sight to
behold; there are just those very few events that anyone gets the chance to see
live. I know there have been other records that have stood the test of time
well before I was born. Baseball, for example, is another sport that has been
around as long as professional horse racing. I got to witness Cal Ripken break
a record that never seemed like one that could be broken. Cal played in more
baseball games, consecutively, than any other player. Cal broke Lou Gehrig's
record of 2,130 games played in a row without missing one game...ever. {I will
not address the Home Run record because there is too much controversy over
those statistics.} This year, we had a young man by the name of Patrick Venditte
of the Oakland Athletics who could pitch a ball with BOTH of his hands...yep, a
switch-handed pitcher! The last person to do this was Greg A. Harris and he was
able to do this back in 1995. Before Greg Harris, the only other person to pull
the feat was Tony Mullane of the Detroit Wolverines in 1881! So seeing a
switch-handed pitcher is a rare event.
I realize that some of this stuff really
isn't that interesting, but you have to admit that when certain things happen
that hasn't been seen for decades, then I think its a pretty big deal. Having the
Asperger's, I really love facts and interesting things that we usually don't
think about. I have a pull calendar from the History Channel that tells me
certain events that happened on each day. I can guarantee that the Triple Crown
race winner this year will be in future pages of their calendar. I guess to me,
this is one of those 'getting to witness history' sort of thing. In 1985, I got
the very rare chance to be at game 7 of the World Series when the Kansas City
Royals beat the St. Louis Cardinals for their first championship. So when
special things like this happen, I can't help but to stop and watch to see if
history is made. Think about the Olympics or the World Cup; those two sporting
events only happen once every four years! Wouldn't you think those events are
special? Historical?
{Well, I guess I can add the Golden State Warriors of the NBA winning the championship...the last time they won was 40 years ago!!!}
{Well, I guess I can add the Golden State Warriors of the NBA winning the championship...the last time they won was 40 years ago!!!}
Song of Inspiration [Check it out on
iTunes or Android!]:
Song: "Home Run"
Artist: Geoff Moore and The Distance
Album: Home Run!
Here’s the video lyrics to the selected
song:
Here is your Triple Crown winner...American Pharoah!