Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 6/07/2007

6/7/1997:
After winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness by razor-thin margins, Silver Charm comes a cropper in the Celmont when he's beaten at the wire by Touch Gold. Silver Charm holds off a serious bid by Free House down the stretch, but jockey Gary Stevens doesn't see Touch Gold advancing on the outside until it's too late. It's quite an expensive miscalculation, what with a $5 million bonus in play for any horse that wins the Triple Crown.

Birthdays:
Cazzie Russell b. 1944
Thurman Munson b. 1947
Napoleon Kaufman b. 1973
Allen Iverson b. 1975
Anna Kournikova b. 1981


“The best and most realistic historical novel about war I have ever read.”—General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

“Remarkable...a book that changed my life.”—Ken Burns

The Battle of Gettysburg was the most decisive of the American Civil War. Shaara took three days, July 1-3, 1863, and imagined how they might have unfolded for the key players in the battle. The result is his magnificent, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that is better than any history text at conveying the drama, uncertainty, hope, and violence of war. It’s an astonishing, inspiring tome.

THE KILLER ANGELS, by Michael Shaara (1974; Ballantine Books, 1987)