Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 3/8/2011

3/8/1900:
The National League, the only major league in baseball at the time, reduces its roster from 12 franchises to 8 by dropping clubs in Baltimore, Cleveland, Louisville and Washington; those remaining are located in Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and St. Louis. The contraction leads to some competition. Ben Johnson will spearhead the American League, which will begin play as a major league in 1901, with teams in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Washington. With the lure of higher salaries, dozens of NL stars will jump to the new league, including future Hall of Famers Cy Young, Nap Lajoie, Willie Keeler, Jimmy Collins and Joe McGinnity.

Birthdays:
Mendy Rudolph b. 1926
Dick Allen b. 1942
Jim Rice b. 1953
Buck Williams b. 1960
Jason Elam b. 1970

Packers Fact:
Guard Fuzzy Thurston (1959-1967) earned a college scholarship to Valparaiso in basketball.

ON WHAT? NO WARM MACHINE?

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Beef Codly Chopped has the order with cooled machine

menu item in Paris, France

“Hope spurs humans everywhere to work harder to endure more now that the future may be better.”

—DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, U.S. president

TENNESSEE REVEALED

Tennessee Williams had a pretty busy life, all in all: drugs, sex, drama, martinis, being confined to a psychiatric ward . . . Yet he was one of the most successful playwrights of the 20th century, and his social circle included Elizabeth Taylor, Anna Magnani, Marlon Brando, Truman Capote, and Gore Vidal. He had a lot to write about, and he knew how to write about it entertainingly.

MEMOIRS, by Tennessee Williams, with an introduction by John Waters (1975; New Directions, 2006)