Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 9/16-9/18/2009

Espousing the long-standing team philosophy of the Oakland Raiders to encourage individualistic expression of their players, their former coach and now popular TV commentator John Madden explained: "These are the greatest athletes in the world. They're like artists. If you take their creativity away from them by making them robotic, then they're going to play like robots."

Birthdays:
Elgin Baylor b. 1934
Dennis Conner b. 1942
Robin Yount b. 1955
Orel Hershiser b. 1958
Mickey Tettleton b. 1960

Packers Fact:
In nine seasons with the Packers (1957-1962, 1964-66), versatile Paul Hornung ran for 3,711 yards, caught 130 passes for 1,480 yards, scored 760 poinds, and even passed for five touchdowns.

SWORDPLAY

In the second of Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s Captain Alatriste series, the captain helps a father and his two sons rescue his daughter from a convent where she is being held captive by an evil priest. Unhappily, all does not go smoothly and, this being 17th-century Spain, the Inquisition will get involved. Swords flash and perfidy skulks. The good captain is undoubtedly one of the finest swashbucklers to gallop down the pike in years.

PURITY OF BLOOD, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte; translated from the Spanish by Margaret Sayers Reden (Plume, 2006)

9/17/1912:
Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel, later to become a zany and eccentric icon of baseball, enjoys a remarkable major league debut at Washington Park in Brooklyn. Playing center field for the Dodgers, Stengel goes four for four (four singles) with a walk, drives in two runs and steals three bases as Brooklyn tops Pittsburgh, 7-3, snapping a 12-game Pirates winning streak. He'll go on to compile a .284 batting average in 14 big-league seasons and then embark on a legendary career as a manager with the Yankees and several other clubs, earning Hall of Fame enshrinement in 1966.

Birthdays:
George Blanda b. 1927
Maureen Connolly b. 1934
Junior Bridgeman b. 1953
John Franco b. 1960
Rasheed Wallace b. 1974

Packers Fact:
Linebacker John Anderson (1978-1989) and safety Johnnie Gray (1975-1983) are the two players who have been credited with more than 1,000 tackles in a Green Bay uniform.

EYE CANDY

Curl up with the most beautiful, significant, haunting, and eye-popping optical illusions, put together by the masters of the form. In addition to the illusions themselves, Masters of Deception includes explanations of how they work and analyses of the masters. Hours and hours of fascination await you.

THE ULTIMATE BOOK OF OPTICAL ILLUSIONS AND MASTERS OF DECEPTION: ESCHER, DALÍ, AND THE ARTISTS OF OPTICAL ILLUSION, by Al Seckel (Sterling Publishing, 2007)

9/18/1965:
Trailing 17-10 with two minutes left and deep in their own territory, Georgia pulls off a minor miracle, a disputed 73-yard pass and lateral play, to upset defending national champion Alabama, 18-17. Bulldogs quarterback Kirby Moore connects with Pat Hodgson, who laterals to half back Bob Taylor, who scores a touchdown to complete the game-breaking play. While the Crimson Tide is still stunned, Moore hits Hodgson for a two-point conversion. Alabama players, coaches and fans scream that Hodgson's knee was clearly on the ground before hepitched the ball to Taylor (game films support their argument), but the call stands and the Dawgs win.

Birthdays:
Darryl Sittler b. 1950
Rick Pitino b. 1952
Peter Stastny b. 1956
Toni Kukoc b. 1968
Lance Armstrong b. 1971

Packers Fact:

In the eight-year span from 1960 to 1967, Bart STarr led the Packers to five NFL championships and had a record of 73-22-4 as the starting quarterback.

BOSWELL’S SAMUEL JOHNSON

Boswell’s great achievement was not only to teach the world how to write biography, but, with the assistance of famed writer and scholar Samuel Johnson, to create a character who, to this very day, springs from the pages in all his intelligence, perspicacity, pettiness, and grandeur. Lose yourself in this masterwork. Today is Johnson’s 300th birthday. Here’s to you, Samuel Johnson, and your inimitable Boswell!

LIFE OF JOHNSON, by James Boswell; edited by R. W. Chapman and J. D. Fleeman, introduction by Pat Rogers (1791; Oxford World’s Classics, 1998)