Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 10/9/2009

10/9/2005:
Chris Burke homers in the last of the 18th inning at Minute Maid Park, giving the Houston Astros a 7-6 victory over the Atlanta Braves to clinch their NLDS, three games to one. It's the longest postseason game in major league history by measure of innings (18) and elapsed time (5:50), and it takes a near-miracle for Houston to extend the game after trailing 6-1 in the eighth inning. Lance Berkman then hits a grand-slam homer to make it 6-5, and with two outs in the ninth Brad Ausmus hits a home run just barely over the yellow line of demarcation in center field to tie the score. Roger Clemens pitches three innings of scoreless relief for the victory.

Birthdays:
Mike Hershberger b. 1939
Joe Pepitone b. 1940
Mike Singletary b. 1958
Kenny Anderson b. 1970
Annika Sorenstam b. 1970

Packers Fact:
In 1976, the new building that houses the Packers Hall of Fame was dedicated by U.S. President Gerald R. Ford (whom Green Bay's Curly Lambeau once tried to sign to play for Green Bay).

EPITAPH FOR A BUILDING

Pennsylvania Station is the ultimate urban legend: a great, great building that is no more, yet everyone remembers or wants to remember it. Read about its epic construction plans, the men of big vision and big money who brought it into existence, and its indelible place in the city it symbolized for a time.

CONQUERING GOTHAM: A GILDED AGE EPIC: THE CONSTRUCTION OF PENN STATION AND ITS TUNNELS, by Jill Jonnes (Viking, 2007)