Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 10/4/2009

10/4/1952:
Michigan State protects an unbeaten season with a second-chance field goal on the game's final play to defeat Oregon State, 17-14, at Multnomah Stadium in Portland. After Gene Lekenta misses a chip-shot placement with only second remaining, OSU is called for offsides, giving him a second chance. He converts this one, and the Spartans, coached by Biggie Munn, celebrate their 17th straight win over three seasons. MSU will win the rest of their games by an aggregate margin of 268-57 and be named national champions at season's end by AP and UPI.

Birthdays:
Rip Repulski b. 1927
Sam Huff b. 1934
Vic Hadfield b. 1940
Tony La Russa b. 1944
A.C. Green b. 1963

THE BEAT GOES ON

The previously unpublished personal journals and earliest poems of Allen Ginsberg provide an interesting glimpse into Beat culture, personalities, ideas, and lifestyle. Ginsberg was such a fluid thinker and so inclined to be garrulous, at turns fun and scholarly, fierce and tender. These writings are a new window on the man and the time.

THE BOOK OF MARTYRDOM AND ARTIFICE: FIRST JOURNALS AND POEMS, 1937-1952, by Allen Ginsberg; edited by Juanita Lieberman-Plimpton and Bill Morgan (Da Capo Press, 2007)