Sometimes people get recognized for accomplishments that become insignificant in time. We have all met people who can tell us how great they were at a sport when they were 10 years old and hit a home run in Little League. Those memories are for your parents but don’t impress others.
This can occur in history when insignificant people end up in the history books. Patrick Henry is taught in American History about a single line in a single speech. For those who don’t remember, he supposedly said “Give me liberty or give me death” during the time go the American Revolution. I am not suggesting that Patrick Henry is insignificant because I honestly don’t know. However, one speech imbeds him in history books forever.
This is common in the world of baseball trivia. In 1911 a man named Frank Baker hit 2 Home Runs in the World Series. Since Home Runs were rare in 1911, Baker became known as “Home Run” Baker. You can look him up. He is in the baseball Hall of Fame as “Home Run” Baker. The most Home Runs he ever hit in one season was 12 in 1913.
In 1921, he played for the New York Yankees. He hit 9 Home Runs that year and watched his teammate, somebody named Babe Ruth, hit 59. Yet Frank is enshrined at Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame as “Home Run” Baker.
Sometimes we make so much about what is going on today with no regard that there is much more information coming up later. We declare a singer as great after one song and never hear from them again. They are called One Hit Wonders.
We must be careful about who we admire when their resume is very brief. Good advice on these issues is to calm down and say “We’ll see.” This is probably sound counsel about many of the issues of the day. Let’s see how this plays out. Time will tell.