The Best Sound

I got an Alexa late last year.

Oh, wait, an Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Generation).

Pretty cool device, it is. Not the best speaker ever, but not the worst either. It does all kinds of things (you likely know this already), and I've barely scratched the surface of the "smart house."

Maybe I'll get the light bulbs and outlets and so on eventually.

For now, I'm satisfied with my Question of the Day, a little Jeopardy, Sports Jeopardy, and the ability to have Alexa land a TARDIS.

She can also meow and freak Chico the large gray cat out.

More to the point (and thus, I'm burying the lead), Alexa can dip into a variety of sounds, including various music stations on iHeart Radio, Pandora, and more.

It can also play various "sleep sounds" and background noise. You can listen to the rain, the ocean, a fireplace, crickets, and others.

Given I'm not sleeping well these days, I'm willing to give anything a try.

Then I discovered the video below. Shot in 1931, it's a rare film of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig taking batting practice (the caption says it was filmed in Brooklyn). The sound is so pure. There's crowd noise and some chatter in the background. There's the sound of the ball hitting the catchers glove.

Most of all, there is the wonderful sound of the crack of the bat.

The easy joke is to say that baseball can put someone to sleep, but this is more than that. This is the joy of the sounds of the game. It's the perfect background noise. It relaxes and thrills.

There is actually a crowd noise option (also known as a "skill") on Alexa, but it's nothing like this.

This is among the most glorious sounds I know.