Lee Smith (born December 4, 1957) is an American former pitcher in professional baseball who played 18 years in Major League Baseball (MLB) for eight teams. A native of Jamestown, Louisiana, Smith was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the 1975 MLB draft. In 1991, he set a National League (NL) record with 47 saves for the St. Louis Cardinals, and was runner-up for the league's Cy Young Award; it was the second of three times Smith led the NL in saves, and he later led the American League in saves once. At his retirement, he held the major league record for career games finished (802) and was third in games pitched (1,022). He still holds the record for career saves for the Cubs (180) and held the same record for the Cardinals (160) until 2006. After his playing career, Smith worked as a pitching instructor in Minor League Baseball for the San Francisco Giants. He served as the pitching coach for the South Africa national baseball team in the World Baseball Classics of 2006 and 2009.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Smith_%28baseball%29
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1829:
Sati, the Hindu funeral custom of a widow's self-immolation on her husband's pyre, was prohibited by Lord William Bentinck in parts of British India after years of campaigning by Ram Mohan Roy (pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_%28practice%29
1909:
The Montreal Canadiens, the oldest professional ice hockey club in the world, were founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Montreal_Canadiens
1928:
Cosmo Gordon Lang was enthroned as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the first bachelor to be appointed in 150 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmo_Gordon_Lang
1971:
The Troubles: The Ulster Volunteer Force, an Ulster-loyalist paramilitary group, detonated a bomb at a Catholic-owned pub in Belfast, Northern Ireland, killing 15 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGurk%27s_Bar_bombing
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
muddy: 1. Covered or splashed with, or full of, mud (“wet soil”). 2. Of water or some other liquid: containing mud or (by extension) other sediment in suspension; cloudy, turbid. 3. Of or relating to mud; also, having the characteristics of mud, especially in colour or taste. 4. (euphemistic) Soiled with feces. 5. (archaic) Of an animal or plant: growing or living in mud. 6. (figuratively) 7. Dirty, filthy. 8. Not clear. 9. Of a colour: not bright: dirty, dull. 10. Of an image: blurry or dim. 11. Of light: cloudy, opaque. 12. Of sound (especially during performance, recording, or playback): indistinct, muffled. 13. Of speech, thinking, or writing: ambiguous or vague; or confused, incoherent, or mixed-up; also, poorly expressed. 14. (chiefly literary, poetic) Of the air: not fresh; impure, polluted. 15. Originally, morally or religiously wrong; corrupt, sinful; now, morally or legally dubious; shady, sketchy. 16. (archaic) Of a person or their facial expression: angry, sad, or sulky. 17. (obsolete) Slightly drunk; tipsy. [...] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/muddy
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish something. The strongest, by dispensing his over many, may fail to accomplish anything. The drop, by continually falling, bores its passage through the hardest rock. The hasty torrent rushes over it with hideous uproar, and leaves no trace behind. --Thomas Carlyle https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle