Sports Fact of the Day 4/18-4/27/2010

4/18/1969:
Cuban refugee Jose "Mantequilla" Napolee knocks out Curtis Cokes to win the world welterweight championship at the Forum in Inglewood, California. Cheered on by a predominantly Latino crowd, Napoles (53-4) had Cokes (58-10) backing up the entire fight as he fended off waves of punches. There are no knockdowns, but Cokes cannot answer the bell in the 14th round; his eyes are swollen shut and the bout is rightfully stopped.

Birthdays:
Don Ohi b. 1936
Pete Gogolak b. 1942
Wilber Marshall b. 1962
Rico Brogan b. 1970
Haile Gabrselassie b. 1973

4/19/1972:
Just one night after colliding with Willie McCovey at first base and suffering bruised ribs (McCovey received a broken arm), San Diego Padres center fielder John Jeter is back in the lineup and cracks a two-run, game-winning homer off Juan Marichal to lead the Padres to a 4-3 win over the San Francisco Giants. The loss sends Marichal into a terrible tailspin: he'll lose eight straight decisions and will finish the year 6-16, by far the worst season of his career.

Birthdays:
Jack Pardee b. 1936
Alexis Arguello b. 1952
Frank Viola b. 1960
Joe Mauer b. 1983
Maria Sharapova b. 1987

Packers Fact:
Safety Eugene Robinson helped spark a 23-10 victory over the 49ers in the 1997 NFC title game with an interception and 58-yard return in the first half.

4/20/1966:
Inexorably moving toward Babe Ruth's lifetime record of 714 home runs, Atlanta Braves slugger Hank Aaron hits his 400th homer at Connien Mack Stadium in an 8-1 rout of the Phillies. Aaron hits two homers in the contest: #399 off Ray Culp in the first inning and his milestone clout, a shot over the roof in left field in the ninth off Bo Belinsky. Aaron will lead the National League in homers (44) and RBIs (127) this season and will go on to lead the league in those two categories four times each during his career before retiring in 1976 as baseball's all-time home run leader (755).

Birthdays:
Ernie Stautner b. 1925
Harry Agganis b. 1930
Steve Spurrier b. 1945
Don Mattingly b. 1961
Tai Streets b. 1977

Packers Fact:
With 119 yards in Week 10 of 2007, the Packers' Ryan Grant was the only player to rush for more than 100 yards against the Vikings' top-ranked run defense that season.

4/21/1951:
Staving off a resilient New York Knocks team that had erased a 3-0 deficit to force a seventh game in the NBA finals, the Rochester Royals win the title, 79-75, at the Edgerton Park Sports Arena in upstate New York. Bob Davies' two free throws in the final minute prove decisive after the Knicks overcame a 14-point Royals lead to briefly go ahead. Arnie Risen has 24 points to lead Rochester to its first and only NBA title; the franchise will move to Cincinnati after the 1957-58 season.

Birthdays:
Gary Peters b. 1937
Al Bumbry b. 1947
Jesse Orosco b. 1957
Vincent Lecavalier b. 1963
Ed Belfour b. 1965

Packers Fact:
Donald Driver entered the 2008 season with at least 1 catch in 95 consecutive games. Sterling Sharpe held the club mark at 103 games. He built his streak from 1988 to 1994.

4/22/1967:
After an upset loss last week in the Gotham Stakes, Damascus bounces back to win the Wood Memorial by six lengths at Aqueduct. It's the final tune-up for Damascus before the Triple Crown races, in which he'll run third in the Kentucky Derby but go on to win the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes (a special moment for jockey Bill Shoemaker, who had also ridden Damascus' sire, Sword Dancer, to victory in the Belmont in 1959). He'll finish in the money in all 16 of his starts as a three-year-old, lead the money earnings list and earn recognition as Horse of the Year.

Birthdays:
Spencer Haywood b. 1949
Terry Francona b. 1959
Freeman McNeil b. 1959
Jeff Hostetler b. 1961
Jimmy Key b. 1961

Packers Fact:
The Packers selected quarterback Bart Starr in the 17th round of the 1956 NFL draft. The future Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee was the 200th overall pick that year.

4/23/1949:
This week's cover of The Saturday Evening Post features Norman Rockwell's The Three Umpires, depicting National League arbiters Larry Goetz, Beans Reardon and Lou Jordan in conference over whether a ball game at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn should continue under rainy conditions. The now-classic artwork had its basis in actual baseball history: a 1941 incident when the weather was so bad that Pirates manager Frankie Frisch came out to protest with an umbrella. Not only was the Fordham Flash ejected for his sarcastic remarks that day, but play continued and Pittsburgh got swept in a doubleheader.

Birthdays:
Jim Bottomley b. 1900
Warren Spahn b. 1921
Tony Esposito b. 1943
Gail Goodrich b. 1943
Andruw Jones b. 1977

Packers Fact:
Lynn Dickey passed for four touchdowns in the Packers' 41-16 rout of the Cardinals in the opening round of the 1992 Super Bowl tournament. John Jefferson was on the receiving end of 2 of those tosses.

4/24/2002:
Shawn Bates scores on a penalty shot with only 2-1/2 minutes left to give the New York Islanders a 4-3 victory over Toronto and a 2-2 deadlock in their first-round Stanley Cup series. Unfortunately for the Isles and their long-suffering fans, feisty center Michael Peca will be sidelined by a Darcy Tucker hip check in the next game and the Maple Leafs eventually win the series in seven games.

Birthdays:
Vince Ferragamo b. 1954
Omar Vizuel b. 1967
Chipper Jones b. 1972
Eric Snow b. 1973
Carlos Beltran b. 1977

Packers Fact:
The Packers' 53-man, kickoff weekend roster for 2008 featured 41 players who had been with the club in '07.

4/25/1992:
Four world-class sprinters racing for the Santa Monica Track Club (SMTC) combine to set a new world record in the 800-meter relay at the Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. Mike Marsh, Leroy Burrell, Floyd Heard and Carl Lewis fly through the two laps around the track in 1:19.11, bettering the 1:19.38 time posted by Burrell. Heard, Lewis and Danny Everett (first leg), running for the SMTC in 1989. Just over an hour earlier, the same four runners also won the 400-meter relay in a meet record time of 38.79 seconds.

Birthdays:
Meadowlark Lemon b. 1932
Vladislav Trotlak b. 1952
Darren Woodson b. 1969
Jacque Jones b. 1975
Tim Duncan b. 1976

Heroically living up to the hype of his considerable self-promotion by performing prodigious deeds on the ballfield, Reggie Jackson once reflected: "Sometimes I underestimate the magnitude of me."

Birthdays:
Harry Gallatin b. 1927
Nino Benvenuti b. 1938
Donna deVarona b. 1947
Mike Scott b. 1955
Natrone Means b. 1972

Packers Fact:
Safety Atari Bigby intercepted a pass in the final minute to seal the Packers' 24-19 victory over Minnesota on a Monday night on kickoff weekend in 2008.

4/27/1975:
Rookie right wing Danny Gare scores at 4:42 of the first overtime at the Aud to give Buffalo a 6-5 victory over Montreal in the first game of their Stanley Cup semifinal series. After scoring 31 goals during his rookie campaign, Gare beats Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden with a wrist shot after the Sabres' great team speed sets up a three-on-two break out of their own zone. In only their fifth season as an expansion franchise, the Sabres will defeat Montreal in six games and advance to the Cup finals, where they'll bow to the Philadelphia Flyers, also in six games.

Birthdays:
Enos Slaughter b. 1916
Lee Roy Jordan b. 1941
Keith Magnuson b. 1947
George Gervin b. 1952
Herman Edwards b. 1954

Packers Fact:
The University of Minnesota has produced the most first-round draft picks (7, entering 2009) in Packers' franchise history.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEK-31eSUOU
A Night to Remember
For sheer uniqueness, Tom Lynskey's all-Lego animated version of the Titanic disaster sinks the competition.

http://www.defectiveyeti.com/crp/
Cliche Exchange
Silence is golden, but if you're not as happy as a clam with the cliches you hear every day, you can jump on the bandwagon at this site and suggest a new one of your own. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. With a link to more cliches than you can shake a stick at if you can't think of one off the top of your head. That's it in a nutshell.

http://ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com/
Be Careful What You Shoot
The webmaster at this site found your camera, developed your pictures, and posted them on the Internet in the hope of reuniting you with your lost treasures. With success stories of orphan pictures found.

http://www.artgarfunkel.com/
The Art of Reading
Singer Art Garfunkel has inspired millions with his music. And if you're casting about for a good read, he can help there as well. At this site you can peruse a chronological list of every book Art's read for the past forty years, along with a list of his special favorites.

http://rippin-kitten.blogspot.com/2007/02/washing-cat.html
Klean Kitties
Think those rabbits we sent you to last month looked mad? They're angels compared to the wet cats at this site. Also included are instructions for washing a cat that must have been written by a dog.

http://www.feedthehead.net/
Feed the Head
You never know what's going to happen when you click on the head. Knock on the forehead and a projector plays a film that yields balls. Feed the balls to the head and watch wings or arms sprout on the scalp. And keep pulling off the nose for all sorts of surprises.

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/08/some-of-worlds-strangest-fences.html
Border Art
We already know that good fences make good neighbors. After a visit to this site you'll also realize that strange fences make interesting art.

http://www.peepresearch.org/smoking.html
Marshmallow Indulgences
Although combining its vices reduced this purple peep to a "ball of charred goo," it looked like it was having a good time indulging in the pleasures of alcohol and smokes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brittnybadger/sets/72157606728017373/
Hidden Parts
If you've ever wondered what the guts of your blender or can opener looked like, wonder no more. The photographer at this site disassembled a dozen household appliances and arranged all the pieces into modern compositions that you can purchase and display.