Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 10/13/2008

10/13/2001:
Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter adds to his considerable legend with a one-of-a-kind play late in the game to preserve a 1-0 victory in the ALDS against the Oakland A's. Jeter ranges into foul territory along the first-base line to retrieve an overthrow from right fielder Shane Spencer and backhands the ball to catcher Jorge Posada, who tags A's base runner Jeremy Giambi to end the seventh inning. Trailing 2-0 in this best-of-five series, the Yankees stay alive and go on to win three straight games against Oakland.

Birthdays:
Eddie Mathews b. 1931
Doc Rivers b. 1961
Jerry Rice b. 1962
Paul Pierce b. 1977
Jermaine O'Neal b. 1978

1985:
Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett became the sixth player in National Football League history to rush for more than 10,000 career yards.

"There is an unmistakable style to Dorsett's running, a tremendous grace that will make him distinctive among NFL backs. His motions are fluid, so fluid that it looks as though he could balance a bowl of soup on his head while moving with the ball." -Joe Marshall, September 19, 1977

Packers Fact:
According to newspaper accounts, Adolph Kliebhan started at quarterback in the inaugural NFL game in Packers' history in 1921. It was the only game in which he played in his career.

SURVIVOR

On October 13, 1972, a plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team and their supporters crashed into the Andes. Three days after the crash, Nando Parrado awoke from a coma with a fractured skull. Overcoming every obstacle and forced into cannibalism to survive, he and several other team members climbed their way out to rescue. This extraordinary testimony, by one who actually lived through it, deeply and movingly enhances the Piers Paul Read’s 1974 bestseller about the incident, Alive.

MIRACLE IN THE ANDES: 72 DAYS ON THE MOUNTAIN AND MY LONG TREK HOME, by Nando Parrado with Vince Rause (Crown, 2006)