High Five Day
It is National High Five Day. If you have followed the Astros closely the last four or five years, you have probably heard that former Astros Manager Dusty Baker was involved in the first high five ever. It turns out there is an Astros angle to this. See this from ESPN.com:
The conventional wisdom had been that (Dodger Glenn) Burke invented the high five on Oct. 2, 1977, in front of 46,000 screaming fans at Dodger Stadium.
It was the last day of the regular season, and Dodgers leftfielder Dusty Baker had just gone deep off the Astros’ J.R. Richard. It was Baker’s 30th home run, making the Dodgers the first team in history to have four sluggers — Baker, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey and Reggie Smith — with at least 30 homers each. It was a wild, triumphant moment and a good omen as the Dodgers headed to the playoffs. Burke, waiting on deck, thrust his hand enthusiastically over his head to greet his friend at the plate. Baker, not knowing what to do, smacked it. “His hand was up in the air, and he was arching way back,” says Baker, now 62 and managing the Reds. “So I reached up and hit his hand. It seemed like the thing to do.”
Burke then stepped up and launched his first major league home run. And as he returned to the dugout, Baker high-fived him. From there, the story goes, the high five went ricocheting around the world. (According to Dodgers team historian Mark Langill, the game was not televised, and no footage survives.)
The featured photo is one of my favorite bubbleheads and it is Dusty Baker. I wonder if there is a Dusty Baker bobblehead of him giving a high five.
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Well, this is confusing. Two H-Town Pride parades. Really? See this from the Chron:
The past few years have included plenty of stormy days for Pride Houston 365, the LGBTQ+ organization that has been putting on the Houston Pride Parade for nearly a half-century: A pandemic disrupted major events, more than $100,000 dollars went missing, bankruptcy became a possibility, and disgruntled volunteers formed a breakaway group that led to a trademark dispute.
The turmoil has been painful for many of Houston’s longtime LGBTQ+ leaders, by most accounts. And in the end, it will help deliver double the Pride this summer, after four years in which Houston’s Pride parade and festival have been canceled or scaled back.
That’s right: this year, Houston will have two Prides. Houston’s New Faces of Pride, which officially launched in October, will host a downtown parade and festival on Saturday, June 22. Pride Houston’s parade and festival will be held one week later, June 29, in the same location.
Here is the entire read: Houston Pride is returning in June. Twice. (houstonchronicle.com).
Look at the bright side. At least they won’t be on the same day as the H-Town MLK Day parades.
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H-Town Mayor John Whitmire is getting criticized for reviewing a couple of major street redos. I get it. I hope the mayor gets credit for getting Hurricane Harvey recovery funds from the General Land Office (GLO). I still remember hearing the smirks when on the campaign trail Mayor Whitmire would say he could work with GLO Commissioner Dawn Buckingham. He obviously can.
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After 20 games, we are 6-14. What? How did this happen? Yesterday’s game was painful to watch. Ryan Pressly could not hold a two-run lead in the eighth inning. At some point soon, the team must decide what to do about José Abreu. You can’t have your first baseman hitting .078. I know 20 games is just 20 games, but if they continue playing this way going into June, the team will decide to sign Kyle Tucker to a long-term deal and start looking to trade Alex Bregman. Injuries, shoddy bullpen performances, and lack of clutch hitting. They got nobody to blame but themselves.
We have the day off, thank goodness.
