Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 9/28-9/29/2009

9/28/1939:
The Cincinnati Reds clinch their first pennant in 20 years with a 5-3 victory over second-place St. Louis at Crosley Field. 'Oom Paul Derringer scatters 14 hits for the victory, capping the best season of his career (25-7). The Reds grab an early lead off St. Louis starter Max Lanier and are never headed. The game's signature play occurs in the seventh inning when Reds right fielder Ival Goodman throws out Joe Medwick, who's trying to stretch a double into a triple, with a perfect strike to third baseman Billy Werber. Although the Reds will be swept in the World Series this year by the Yankees, they'll repeat as National League champions in 1940 and dfeat Detroit for their first world title since 1919.

Birthdays:
Alice Marble b. 1913
Tom Harmon b. 1919
Steve Largent b. 1954
Grant Fuhr b. 1962
Emeka Okafor b. 1982

Packers Fact:
Robert Brooks, who eventually became a record-setting receiver for the Packers, led the NFL when he averaged 26.6 yards per kickoff return in his second season with the club in 1993.

CRIME LOVER’S PICK

Seven years ago Danny was involved with his childhood friend Evan in a robbery that went horribly wrong and ended in murder. Evan is doing his time, and Danny is living quietly and holding down a good job with a construction company. When Evan gets out of prison, he comes looking for Danny and for trouble, and he finds both in the streets of Chicago. Publishers Weekly starred review.

THE BLADE ITSELF, by Marcus Sakey (St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2007)

9/29/1984:
With 30 members of its 1959 national championship team on hand for a reunion, Syracuse earns its biggest victory since that unbeaten campaign with a 17-9 upset of top-ranked Nebraska at the Carrier Dome. The Orangemen employ a stifling defense to hold Nebraska (averaging 41 ppg) to a single touchdown and maintain three long scoring drives to keep the vaunted Cornhusker offense off the field. Mike Siano (on a 40-yard reception) and Harold Gayden (on a one-yard run) each score a touchdown as Syracuse jumps back into the national spotlight under fourth-year head coach Dick MacPherson.

Birthdays:
Ellsworth Vines b. 1911
Bom Phillips b. 1923
Sebastian Coe b. 1956
Hersey Hawkins b. 1965
Kevin Durant b. 1988

Packers Fact:
After six years with the Packer, defensive end Reggie White retired at the end of the 1998 season. He returned to play one year in 2000 with the Carolina Panthers.

APOCALYPSE NOW

New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert uses prose in the low, persistent, clear rhythms of a tolling bell to catalog the changes being wrought in the oceans, on the land, and in the air. Her descriptions of ecosystems, many of them about to be lost forever, are so detailed, so wonderful in their integrated, interlocking parts and minute workings, that they will haunt you for a long time to come. Publishers Weekly starred review.

FIELD NOTES FROM A CATASTROPHE: MAN, NATURE, AND CLIMATE CHANGE, by Elizabeth Kolbert (Bloomsbury USA, 2006)