Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 04/17/2008

4/17/1990:
More than 49,000 fans pack the Metrodome in Minneapolis for a meaningless regular-season game, enabling the Minnesota Timberwolves to set a single-season NBA attendance record in their debut year in the league. In 41 home dates, the expansion franchise T-Wolves drew 1,072,578, breaking the previous mark set by the Detroit Pistons at the Pontiac Silverdome. Tonight's crowd is the third largest in NBA history, surpassed only by two Pistons games. On the court, the T-Wolves drop their home finale, 99-89, to the Denver Nuggets.

Birthdays:
Geoff Petrie b. 1948
Borje Salming b. 1951
Ken Daneyko b. 1964
Marquis Grissom b. 1967
Theo Ratliff b. 1973

1987:
Julius Erving of the Philadelphia 76ers scored 38 points in a loss to the Indiana Pacers, yet delighted the hometown fans. "Dr. J" became the third player in professional basketball history to score 30,000 career points.

"When he finally reached the milestone on a turnaround jump shot at 5:01 of the third period, the 17,967 fans in the Spectrum knew they had seen something very special. An athlete had reached back and snatched a performance out of time." -Jack McCallum, May 4, 1987


A COZY MYSTERY
In 1849, Edgar Allan Poe disappeared between his home in Virginia and Philadelphia, where he was planning to take up an editorial post. Several days later he was discovered drunk in a Baltimore tavern and died soon after. Quentin Hobson Clark, a lawyer and a fan of Poe’s, wants to know what happened. To help him uncover the truth, he searches out the real-life model of Poe’s great detective, C. Auguste Dupin, in Paris. Complications and wickedness abound in this suspenseful blend of history and fiction—a stylish, engrossing mystery.

THE POE SHADOW, by Matthew Pearl (Random House, 2006)