Daily Dirt: Steve’s 50-year high school reunion is coming up (has it been that long?)

For those who graduated high school in 1972, at some point this summer or fall, you’ll likely be attending a reunion commemorating the golden anniversary of that event. Was it really that long ago? … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 332 of The Daily Dirt.

1. I got a reminder the other day about the upcoming 50th reunion of the Mansfield Madison High School class of 1972. That was my high school back in Ohio, and that was my graduating class.

Fifty years. Wow. It doesn’t seem possible. That reminder in the mail got me thinking about what else was going on in the world at that time. A few Google searches proved beneficial to kickstarting my memory, because back in 1972 …

• The first pocket calculator was introduced. We all thought those were the coolest things ever. I wonder what someone back then would have said if the iPhone (that is sitting beside my keyboard as I write this) also had been introduced?
• McDonald’s Egg McMuffin made its first appearance in ’72. The world since has been a better place.
• “PONG” was introduced and became the first commercially successful video game. If you are reading this and are uncertain what that even is, just ask one of your older friends. And by older, I mean someone in his or her mid-to-late 60s.
• ABBA was formed and, a few years later, would rule the world of pop music.
• The first digital watches found their way on to wrists. They were a bit … ummm … clunky.
• Every young girl was asking her parents for one of the new Easy Bake Ovens.
• Samuel L. Jackson made his film debut.
• HBO first became available in the living rooms of American TV watchers.
• The No. 1 song that year was “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” by Roberta Flack.
• The biggest smashes at the box office were “The Godfather” and “The Poseidon Adventure.”
• The most popular comedians were Don Rickles, Martin Mull, Lily Tomlin and George Carlin.
• The most popular baby names were Jennifer, Michelle, Lisa, Kimberly, Amy, Michael, Christopher, James, David and John. (Steve apparently just missed the cut.)
• Some of the top sex symbols were Adrienne Barbeau, Dyan Cannon, Lynda Carter, Pam Grier, Peggy Lipton and Diana Ross.
• Time magazine’s men of the year were Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger.
• Sandy Koufax was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, the youngest player ever elected, at age 36.

It’s still difficult to fathom that was all 50 years ago.

2. Some happy early July birthdays:

• Rock legend Ringo Starr turns 82 today. Those days with the Beatles seem like a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
• Once football royalty and now little more than a punchline, O.J. Simpson will be 75 on Saturday. I wonder what he thinks about USC moving to the Big Ten.
• Film star extraordinaire Tom Hanks will be 66 on Saturday. Hanks boasts ancestral ties to Abe Lincoln.
• Comedian Bill Cosby reaches birthday No. 84 on Tuesday. Anyone else old enough to remember when Cosby and Robert Culp starred in the NBC TV show “I Spy”?
• Actor Harrison Ford turns 80 on Wednesday. Yes, the fifth “Indiana Jones” movie is on the way.

3. Longtime MLB writer Ken Rosenthal — arguably the finest at his craft since the prime of Peter Gammons — had quite the interesting tidbit earlier this week.

“The biggest miss at last year’s trade deadline, or even this winter, was Dodgers starter Tony Gonsolin,” Rosenthal wrote. “Rival executives will tell you that he was more than available, but no one envisioned that he would be more than a fourth or fifth starter.”

These days, the dude is 10-0 with a 1.54 ERA. He’s the first starter to open a season 10-0 while allowing fewer than 50 hits since Walter Johnson in 1913.

Walter Johnson!

Steve Thought O’ The Day
To add more perspective to that Walter Johnson comment, the hall of fame pitcher died in 1946 — seven years before I was born. And I am ancient!

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Who wants to see a photo of Steve from his days at the Mansfield Madison High School during the 1971-72 school year?