Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 04/24/2008

4/24/1969
Montreal center Jean Beliveau scores the only sudden-death goal of his legendary career to give the Canadiens a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins in double overtime to clinch their Stanley Cup East Division final-round series in six games. Pesky Claude Provost steals the puck from Bruins defenseman Don Awrey to set up Beliveau for the game winner, beating Boston goalie Gerry Cheevers. Montreal will go on to sweep St. Louis in the playoff finals for their NHL record 15th Stanley Cup championship.

Birthdays:
Vince Ferragamo b. 1954
Omar Vizquel b. 1967
Chipper Jones b. 1972
Eric Snow b. 1973
Carlos Beltran b. 1977

1952:
Patty Berg set a new women's scoring record when she fired 10 birdies for a total of 64 in the first round of the Richmond Open.

"She can handle a club in her fingers like no one since Hogan. Her mannerisms at address and as she rocks into delivering the shot are highly reminiscent of Sarazen. ... She is the intuitive shot-maker who expresses her full personality as she plays each shot to fit its different requirements." -Herbert Warren Wind, February 27, 1956

HOW THE FUTURE ROCKS

“He has tapped straight into our collective cultural mainline and shows no signs of stopping.”—Spin

The author of Neuromancer and Virtual Light has offered up another of his vivid cyberpunk scenarios that show us the frightening new world that awaits us. This time, 21st-century Tokyo is the setting for some dramatic interplay among rogue corporations, a virtual rock idol (an “idoru”), illegal nanoware, someone named Chia Pet McKenzie, and Russian gangsters.

IDORU, by William Gibson (Berkley, 1997)