Reading Sports Illustrated on Sunday morning, I saw a little “flashback” article about Pete Rose’s 44-game hitting streak back in 1978.
“You remember when Pete Rose hit in 44 straight games?” I asked my wife Roberta.
“No,” she said.
“You’re kidding.”
“No, I don’t remember that.”
“Do you know who has the record for the longest hitting streak?”
“Oh, I should know that,” she said, thinking for several minutes before, after a hint from me — “Where has he gone?” — she came up with Joe DiMaggio.
“You know how many games?”
“Fifty-six?” she answered a bit uncertainly, though correctly.
“Yes,” I said, “and that’s one of those numbers every American should know, whether they like baseball or not.”
Continuing with the little quiz of cultural numeracy, I asked her, “What year did we walk on the moon?”
“1968?”
“No, 1969. Everybody should know that too.”
“I’m terrible remembering that kind of stuff. If I needed to know, I’d look it up.”
What can I say — either you can keep track of our culture’s most important numbers, as I believe you should be able to, or you can’t.
Here then is a partial list of Numbers Everyone Should Know, as determined by yours truly (if you don’t know what some of are significant for, and want to, send me an email at steve.lundeberg@lee.net):
– Dec. 7, 1941
– July 4, 1776
– 714 and 755
– .406
– 9/11
– June 6, 1944
– 1492
– 5,280
– 405,000
– 60,000
– 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
– 61
7 comments
Cory_Frye says:
Sep 1, 2009
Don't you mean 61*?
stevelundeberg says:
Sep 1, 2009
No, the asterisk is unfair to Roger. He got eight more games, but Ruth played against competition that had to be weaker simply because a sizeable percentage of potential players were excluded from the big leagues because of their color.
CateHahn says:
Sep 1, 2009
The only reason I can remember we walked on the moon in 1969 is that is the month and year my mom died. I'm with Roberta – if a need to know, I'll look it up. Mothers need to keep too many numbers in their heads: birthdates, soc. sec. numbers, drivers's license, etc. We don't have room for a lot of sports statistics! (Sorry, Steve)
Laure_A says:
Sep 1, 2009
Maybe some women don't.
sunshinesprayer says:
Sep 2, 2009
Here's one for ya 6 million, I think that should be before any sports stats
sunshine5864 says:
Sep 2, 2009
There are stats way more important than sports stats. Why should it matter who hit what when? It doesn't. Anymore than it matters why Michael Jackson died more than a homeless person's cause of death. Celebrity is greatly overrated in this country. Recognize the guys that are protecting our country and spend the money there. Go back to "actors" being paid a normal wage instead of millions for horribly nasty movies and pay our firefighters, police and military for their lives that they risk everyday to make us safer.
jennifermoody says:
Sep 2, 2009
You forgot 42. And you can e-mail ME if you don't know why.