Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 01/26/2008

1/26/1950:
Citations' record 16-race winning streak is snapped by a little-known Argentinian colt named Miche at Santa Anita. This was only Citation's second outing since winning 19 of 20 races and the Triple Crown in 1948 and then sitting out last year with leg injuries. Known as the Calumet Cannonball, Citation grabs the early lead but does not sustain it. Miche, a 14-1 shot, matches Citation stride for stride down the stretch and wins by a neck. It's only Citation's third loss in 31 lifetime starts, all of them at the short distance of six furlongs (three-quarters of a mile).

Birthdays:
Bob Uecker b. 1935
Jack Youngblood b. 1950
Brian Doyle b. 1955
Wayne Gretzky b. 1961
Vince Carter b. 1977

1996:
Monica Seles beat Anke Huber and won her fourth Australian Open title. It was Seles' first major championship since having been stabbed four years earlier.

"Her ground strokes lacked their usual force; her shots weren't scraping the lines...She huffed around the court, out of shape. It didn't matter. Seles possesses something more important than a gym-perfect body; she is a pure competitor, with athletic gifts that have nothing to do with muscle. -S.L. Price, February 5, 1996


Two bestselling authors, one of chick lit and the other of action-adventure yarns, have blended their specialties into a stew of a book that includes moviemaking, helicopters, a precocious five-year-old named Pepper, an ex-husband, and a Green Beret captain. Romantic Times made it a Top Pick and said, “Bless the day that Crusie and Mayer sat down to chat, for this collaboration is inspired! All of the humor and irony from Crusie’s previous books is here in full force, but now it’s ratcheted up with a male action-adventure perspective.”

DON’T LOOK DOWN, by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer (St. Martin’s Press, 2006)