Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 11/1 & 11/2/2008

Nov. 1:
11/1/1970:
Forty-three-year-old George Blanda kicks a 48-yard field goal with three seconds left to lift the Oakland Raiders into a 17-17 tie with their archrivals, the Kansas City Chiefs. Only a minute earlier, a nasty row between the bitter antagonists short-circuited a Chiefs drive and allowed Oakland to regain possession with enough time to get the tying points. After a 19-yard run by Chiefs quarterback Lenny Dawson, Raiders defensive end Ben Davidson is whistled for piling on. Seeking immediate payback, Chiefs receiver Otis Taylor sucker-punches Davidson but gets an offsetting misconduct penalty for his trouble, negativing Dawson's long gainer. After a Kansas City punt, Raiders QB Daryle Lamonica moves his team into field goal range for Blanda's tying placement.

Birthdays:
Vic Power b. 19331
Gary Player b. 1935
"Jumping Joe" Caldwell b. 1941
Ted Hendricks b. 1947
Fernando Valenzuela b. 1960

1969:
In a 51-42 victory over St. Louis, New Orleans Saints quarterback Billy Kilmer threw a career-high six touchdown passes.

"If Kilmer, who is football's answer to a knuckleball pitcher, can get the ball to his talented catchers, the Saints should have a really good passing attack. Kilmer may be another Bobby Layne. Layne's passes sometimes traveled end over end, but they were almost always on target." -Tex Maule and Edwin Shrake, September 16, 1968

The 1936 NFL title game between Green Bay and Boston was played at the Polo Grounds in New York City. Boston was to host the game (the home site alternated each year between the Western Division winner and the Eastern Division winner), but owner George Preston Marshall felt that he was not getting enough support in that town and moved the game to New York City. The next year, the club moved to Washington.

Nov. 2:
11/2/2005:
Martin Havlat and Daniel Alfredsson each score four goals to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 10-4 rout of the Buffalo Sabres. Dany Heatley scores the other two Ottawa goals after scoring four goals himself against Toronto just three nights ago. The high-scoring Senators will go on to win the Eastern Conference title and lead the league in goals scored with 314, but the Sabres will have the last word when they oust the Senators from the playoffs next spring.

Birthdays:
Bill Mosienko b. 1921
Whitey Skoog b. 1926
Ken Rosewall b. 1934
Willie McGee b. 1958
Sidney Ponson b. 1976



A BOOK LOVER’S GIFT
Frances Mayes follows Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany with this warm love letter of a book on the good life and how it’s lived in heavenly Tuscany. “In the distance you see villages crowning a hill or protectively stacked against a slope,” she writes. “Every one pulls me toward its altarpiece, special triptych, arched gate, gothic window, or fountain. Every one has its opinionated, eccentric, friendly, and intrinsic characters who make each place deeply itself.” There you have it. With recipes to spur your appetite and exquisite photographs by Bob Krist, this is a book to dream on.

IN TUSCANY, by Frances Mayes with Edward Mayes (Broadway, 2000)

EVER GREAT
No one does political fiction like Vidal. Washington, D.C. was the first written of Vidal’s Narratives of Empire series of American-history novels, and it is as engaging and smart as the best of them. It follows the fortunes of newspaper tycoon Blaise Sanford; James Burden Day, the powerful senator who has his eye on the presidency; and various other Washington “low lifes.” You might want to cast your vote before you read this classic portrayal of our political establishment.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: A NOVEL, by Gore Vidal (Vintage, 2000)