Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 2/24/2011

2/24/1982:
Wayne Gretzky sets a new NHL season goal-scoring record during a 6-3 Oilers victory over the Sabres in Buffalo. Gretzky came into the contest with 76 goals on the season, tied with Phil Esposito's 76 for the Boston Bruins in 1970-71. He gets his 77th with the score 3-3 at 13:24 of the third period on an unassisted goal past Buffalo netminder Don Edwards. Before the night is done, he adds two more goals, at 18:16 and 19:43, as Esposito stands by to hand him the game puck.

Birthdays:
Honus Wagner b. 1874
Alain Prost b. 1955
Eddie Murray b. 1956
Simeon Rice b. 1974
Lleyton Hewitt b. 1981

Packers Fact:
Donald Driver surpassed Sterling Sharpe in 2009 as the Packers' all-time leading receiver. Sharpe had 595 catches from 1988 to 1994.

ON JUST HOW OLD WAS SHE?

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First Black Woman on Record Reaches North Pole

in the Ventura County (California) Star

“Hope remains the highest reality, the age-old power.”

—RONALD REAGAN, U.S. president

DYSTOPIA

James Boice’s stunning debut explores the dark, greedy, savage world of basketball player Gilbert Marcus, propelled to MVP status and riding the American Dream like Slim Pickens on the bomb. That is, until the team begins to slip (and so does Marcus) into a nightmare of testosterone-fueled violence. The exploration of our celebrity-mad society and the money and attention thrown at sports figures presents a portrait of the limits of morality in hypnotizing prose and unforgettably graphic imagery. Chuck Klosterman writes, “I’ve never read any other books that are remotely like this.”

MVP, by James Boice (Scribner, 2007)