Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 02/15/2008

2/15/1961:
Odds-on favorite Carry Back defeats Sherluck by a half-length in the Everglade Stakes at Hialeah. Ridden by John Sellers, Carry Back trails for much of the race before assuming control at the head of the stretch. He'll win 9 of his 16 races as a three-year-old, including the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, but Sherluck will rise up at the Belmont and scuttle his Triple Crown bid.

Birthdays:
John Hadl b. 1940
Darrell Green b. 1960
Jaromir Jagr b. 1972
Amy Van Dyken b. 1973
Ugueth Urbina b. 1974


1984:
At the Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, Bill Johnson of California became the first American skier ever to win the Olympic downhill gold medal.

"The gold was an explosive surprise for the United States team. But for the European skiing establishment, it was a paralyzing turn of events, a happening as unthinkable to them as an Austrian's hitting a World Series-winning home run would be to Americans." -William Oscar Johnson, February 27, 1984

Packers Fact:
Wide receiver Greg Jennings is a first cousin of Broncos linebacker Ian Gold.

BIBLE STUDY

The New Testament is a collection of letters, narratives, and revelations. None of the original manuscripts exist today; the Bible we read is a copy of copies of the originals, each layer with its own examples of the fallibilities of editors and transcribers. Bart Ehrman has made a study of biblical manuscripts and of how the Bible was modified over time. This potentially dry subject becomes both accessible and interesting in Ehrman’s hands, and it is further humanized by the author’s personal story of how his studies of the Bible’s texts have changed his own religious thinking.

MISQUOTING JESUS: THE STORY BEHIND WHO CHANGED THE BIBLE AND WHY, by Bart D. Ehrman (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005)