Agent Palmer

Recorded in 1981 and released on September 30, 1982 as the third single on Toto’s fourth studio album Toto IV, “Africa,” has gone from hitting number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1983 to its current place in popular culture as a meme. Not being lost but being beloved during the course of that journey.

Now, I’ll admit that a friend of mine who remains steadfast that Hold the Line is the better song, which I respectfully disagree with, because it’s more of the I don’t want to go with the crowd pick.

Over the years baseball has changed. On the diamond, in the dugout, and off the field as well. And there are a ton of things in this book that emphasize that point, but this book is more than baseball, it’s Earl Weaver. And then again, some things don’t change.

It’s pitching, defence, and the three-run home-run. It’s arguing with umpires, tearing up rulebooks, and “debates” with your own players and management.

Around the time that the film adaptation of Lost Moon, called Apollo 13 came out, my parents who knew I was in love with all things NASA bought me the book by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.

The book, in a concerted marketing effort with the movie was also retitled from Lost Moon to Apollo 13 and with a picture of not Lovell but Tom Hanks as Lovell on the front cover. And while I read the book, or read through it when I picked it up recently, I now had the knowledge of the other books I’ve been reading.