Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 7/21/2007

7/21/1970:
With his team 30 games out of first place, Padres manager Preston Gomez plays it totally "by the book" and sends in Cito Gaston to pinch-hit for pitcher Clay Kirby in the last of the eighth inning, training the Mets, 1-0. Kirby hasn't allowed any hits to this point, and there are two outs and no one on base. Gaston strikes out, and the Mets go on to win, 3-0. Gomez will employ this same strategy in 1974, pulling Don Wilson of the Astros after eight-innings with a no-hitter but trailing 2-1. It doesn't work then, either; the Astros lose.

Birthdays:
Gene Littler b. 1930
Gene Fullmer b. 1931
Dave Henderson b. 1958
David Carr b. 1979
C.C. Sabathia b. 1980

BIOGRAPHIES

A sublime, soaring biography. The boy wonder from Salzburg has never been so thoroughly, expertly, yet sensitively examined as he is here in Solomon’s definitive work. Mozart’s psychology, his music, and the times in which he lived sparkle with clarity. “Brilliant,” in the estimation of The New York Times Book Review.

MOZART: A LIFE, by Maynard Solomon (HarperPerennial, 1996)