Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 5/16/2011

5/16/1939:
The Philadelphia Athletics stage the first night game in American League history and lose to the Cleveland Indians, 8-3, at Shibe Park. The A's are the third team to play home games at night. The Cincinnati Reds were first in 1935, the Brooklyn Dodgers second in 1938. The A's will be followed in 1939 by the Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, and in 1940 by the New York Giants, St. Louis Browns, Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals. Fans of the Washington Senators, Boston Braves, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers will see night games at home in the 1940s. Of the 16 pre-expansion clubs, the Chicago Cubs are the last holdout, lights won't be installed at Wrigley Field until 1988.

Birthdays:
Billy Martin b. 1928
Rick Rhoden b. 1953
Olga Korbut b. 1955
Jack Morris b. 1955
Thurman Thomas b. 1966

Packers Fact:
Lavvie Dilweg was a star end for Green Bay from 1927 to 1934. He went on to become a United States Congressman and, later, worked in the Kennedy administration.

ON POM POMS, MORE IMPORTANT
THAN YOU EVER DREAMED

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My goal is to take Pom Pom international to different areas of conflict around the globe, be it arguing neighbors in Aylesbury or rock throwers in the Gaza Strip. Dealing with differences is much easier with a stress-busting pom pom in your hand. Making a pom pom for peace may appear frivolous, but it touches people in a profound way.

broadcaster/writer Amy Lamé

“If thou follow thy star thou canst not fail of a glorious heaven.”

—DANTE, Italian poet

PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF

Dr. Olivier Ameisen is a world-renowned cardiologist who was heavily addicted to alcohol for more years than he cared to remember, and indeed there are many experiences he cannot remember at all. Using his groundbreaking research with the antispasmodic drug baclofen, he was his own experimental subject and cured himself. This is the remarkable account of his journey on the frontiers of science into the heart of his own darkness, and a passionate plea for the acceptance of baclofen, formerly prescribed for other purposes, in the treatment of the tragic and prevalent sickness.

THE END OF MY ADDICTION, by Olivier Ameisen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009)