Weirdness

Twenty seven days into spring, and there's fresh snow on the ground. I thought Al Gore said the earth was getting warmer. And a baseball game is under way at 11 AM.

The third Monday in April is Patriots Day in Massachusetts, a day set aside to remember the midnight ride of Paul Revere and the Raiders. The Boston Marathon runs, and the Red Sox play a morning game. 

Frank Lary's arm problems, that ended his career, began in 1962 with a start in the snow. In Detroit, as I remember. Baseball Reference's 1962 Tigers game log confirms that he started on April 13, at home vs the Yankees, and was the winning pitcher. So that must have been the game.

Before 1969, Patriots Day was observed on April 19. In 1962 that date fell on Thursday, and the Sox played the Tigers, in the first game of a weekend series. They won, and won again on Saturday. Frank Lary lost the Saturday game. Attendance at Fenway, in baseball-mad Boston, on Thursday was a little over nine thousand; on Saturday twelve and a half thousand.

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While I was looking for stats, I checked American League team batting. 

The Seattle Mariners, whom the Tigers play tonight, are hitting .214 as a team. 112 hits in 524 a bats. Subtract Ichiro's 17 for 67, and they're hitting .208.

I didn't think it was possible to hit .214 as a team at any time of the year.