Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 02/06/2008

Ash Wednesday
2/6/1986:
Buffalo center-iceman Dave Andreychuck scores five goals to lead the Sabres to an 8-6 win over the Bruins at Boston Garden. Buffalo scores eight times on only 21 shots against two ineffective Boston Goalies. Andreychuck scores all five of his goals in the first two periods. He'll go on to play 22 seasons in the NHL, score 634 regular season goals and retire as a Stanley Cup champion as a member of the 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning.

Birthdays:
Babe Ruth b. 895
Smoky Burgess b. 1927
Don Cockroft b. 1945
Richie Zisk b. 1949
Kim Zmeskal b. 1976

1993:
Tennis legend and human rights activist Arthur Ashe died after complication caused by AIDS, which he had contracted during a blood transfusion while having heart surgery several years earlier.

"Ashe was the best at leaving every shot behind. He played each stroke as if it were for life and death and then instantly abstained from regret or celebration because there was another shot to play." -Kenny Moore, February 15, 1993

Packers Fact:
Linebacker A.J. Hawk earned a bachelor's degree in criminology from Ohio State and is interested in a career in law enforcement following his playing days.

SPIRITS OF ROMANCE

“Sparks delivers another shrink-wrapped, reliably uncomplicated romantic confection that’s light as air, smooth as silk and gloriously sweet.”—Publishers Weekly

Down in pastoral Boone Creek, North Carolina, they’re seeing strange lights in the old cemetery. The local psychic, Doris McClellan, thinks the lights are supernatural, and she invites professional skeptic Jeremy Marsh down to see if he can debunk her theory. A rising science journalist in New York City, Marsh senses a good story and accepts her invitation not knowing that the true mystery he will encounter is love in the person of Lexie Darnell, the town librarian and Doris’s granddaughter.

TRUE BELIEVER, by Nicholas Sparks (Warner Books, 2005)