Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 5/8/2007

5/8/1966:
The San Francisco Giants trade first baseman Orlando Cepeda for pitcher Ray Sadecki of the St. Louis Cardinals. Sedecki will struggle to a 32-29 record in four seasons with the Giants, while Cepeda will win the MVP award in 1967 and lead his new team to a world title. He'll clout 379 homers during his career and earn enshrinement to Cooperstown in 1999.

Birthdays:
Sonny Liston b. 1932
Mike Cuellar b. 1937
Bill Cowher b. 1957
Ronnie Lott b. 1959
Speedy Claxton b. 1978

POLITICS

More versatile than a blackbird, Winston Churchill inspires not 13 but 40 different perspectives in this unique take on biography by former law professor Gretchen Rubin. Presenting insightful, sometimes contradictory, takes on England’s greatest leader, Rubin builds easily digestible chapters on Churchill as orator, leader, writer, son, husband—and 35 other things. Publishers Weekly calls it “an excellent introduction to one of the most written about men in history.”

FORTY WAYS TO LOOK AT WINSTON CHURCHILL: A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF A LONG LIFE, by Gretchen Rubin (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2004)