Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 1/16/2008

1/16/2001:
Dave Winfield and Kirby Puckett are elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. Winfield is one of only seven players with over 3,000 hits and 400 home runs (3,110 and 465). Puckett, the dynamic star of the Minnesota Twins, collected more hits (2,040) in his first 10 calendar years (1984-93) than anyone in history. They'll be joined by two Veterans Committee selections, Pittsburgh second baseman Bill Mazeroski and pitcher Hilton Smith of the Negro Leagues, at induction ceremonies this summer at Cooperstown.

Birthdays:
Dizzy Dean b. 1911
A.J. Foyt b. 1935
Jack McDowell b. 1966
Roy Jones Jr. b. 1969
Albert Pujols b. 1980

1962:
Bob Pettit set a National Basketball Association All-Star Game record with 27 rebounds and was named the game's Most Valuable Player for an unprecedented fourth time.

"Pettit's daily Jekyll-Hyde transformation is a startling phenomenon. Off court, he is shy and mild to the point of meekness; when the whistle blows, he is a relentless bundle of aggression, irresistibly on the scent of victory. -Jeremiah Tax, January 5, 1959

Packers Fact:
Brett Favre entered the 2006 season with 19 career games in which he had passed for 4 or more touchdowns. Only Dan Marino, with 21, had more 4 TD days.

CELEBRITY BIO

“Funny, I don’t feel like a celebrity.”—Barbra Streisand

If you like Babs, or even have a tepid interest in the subject, avoid Christopher Andersen’s 2006 Barbra: The Way She Is, reviled by critics and readers alike, and opt instead for this definitive 600-page, 1.6-pound masterpiece of gossip and adoration by a veteran celeb biographer (chronicler of Princess Diana, Vivian Leigh, Maria Callas, Katharine Hepburn, and many others). This comes close to capturing the diva the way she is—full of contradictions, ego, and talent.

STREISAND: A BIOGRAPHY, by Anne Edwards (Berkley, 1998)