Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/6/2011

4/6/1973:
The New York Yankees' Ron Blomberg becomes the first designated hitter in major league history as he draws a walk from Luis Tiant in the first inning of a 15-5 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Orlando Cepeda is Boston's DH in the same game. Also on this date, during an 8-3 victory over the Athletics in Oakland, the Minnesota Twins' Tony Oliva becomes the first designated hitter to come through with a home run.

Birthdays:
Mickey Cochrane b. 1903
Ernie Lombardi b. 1908
Bert Blyleven b. 1957
Sterling Sharpe b. 1965
Bret Boone b. 1969

Packers Fact:
Guard Daryn Colledge entered 2009 having played in all 48 of the Packers' regular-season games his first three NFL seasons.

ON AND YOU ALSO MAKE YOUR OWN CLICHÉS

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I don’t believe in no curses. You make your own destination.

outfielder Manny Rodriguez

DARKNESS REIGNS
AT THE FOOT OF
THE LIGHTHOUSE.

—Japanese proverb

HIDDEN GEMS AND MORE

Let paleontologist and enthusiast of curiosities take you on a guided tour through the cabinet of wonders that is London’s Natural History Museum. Not so much a study of that august institution but a loving, if expert, tribute to this major repository of gems, fossils, exotic plants, birds and their feathers, eggs, dinosaur bones, and on and on through the wonderful rooms and back rooms where other similar enthusiasts work and play.

“An idiosyncratic, endearing, and colorful journey.”—The Boston Globe

DRY STOREROOM NO. 1: THE SECRET LIFE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, by Richard Fortey (Random House, 2008)