Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 5/9-11/2011

5/9/1961:
Orioles first baseman Jim Gentile hits two grand slams in the first two innings of a 13-5 Baltimore triumph over the Twins in Bloomington. In the first inning, Minnesota's Pedro Ramos loads the bases on a walk, a double and another walk. Next up is cleanup hitter Gentile, who wallops a homer deep over the center field fence to score Whitey Herzog, Jackie Brandt and Brooks Robinson. With Paul Giel on the mound in the second, Herzog, Brandt and Robinson are again on base when Gentile comes through with another home run, this time to right field. It's a career year for Gentile - he'll end up with 46 homers, 5 of them grand slams, and a .302 batting average.

Birthdays:
Pancho Gonzales b. 1928
Ralph Boston b. 1939
Calvin Murphy b. 1948
Tony Gwynn b. 1960
Steve Yzerman b. 1965

Packers Fact:
Aaron Kampman, a defensive end for his first seven seasons, moved to outside linebacker in the Packers' new 3-4 defense in 2009.

5/10/1987:
Sleepy Floyd scores 29 points for the Golden State Warriors in the fourth quarter of a 129-121 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals. Golden State, down by three games, begins the fourth quarter trailing by 14 points. In the final 12 minutes, Floyd scores 12 field goals, including 9 in a span of 4:25, to finish the contest with 51 points. His 29 points in one quarter and 39 in one half both set NBA playoff records. Game 5 will go to the Lakers, 118-106.

Birthdays:
Pat Summerall b. 1930
Jim Calhoun b. 1942
Chris Berman b. 1955
Phil & Steve Mahre b. 1957
Rony Seikaly b. 1965

Packers Fact:
The Packers drafted fullback Quinn Johnson in 2009. He was a fifth-round choice.

5/11/1975:
With a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, the New York Islanders win their eighth-straight game while risking elimination in the Stanley Cup playoffs. In the first round, the Islanders faced the Rangers and won the third and deciding contest, 4-3, in overtime. In the second round, they fell behind the Penguins three games to none, then won four in a row to advance. Against the Flyers, the Islanders again fell behind three games to none, then won three straight. The Cinderella story will end with a seventh-game 4-1 loss in Philadelphia on May 13.

Birthday:
Charlie Gehringer b. 1903
Jack Twyman b. 1934
Milt Pappas b. 1939
Kerry Lightenberg b. 1971
Matt Leinart b. 1983

Packers Fact:
Center Jim Ringo (1953-1963) played for teh Philadelphia Eagles for four seasons after 11 years in Green Bay. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981.

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.”

—HELEN KELLER, American writer and lecturer

“To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.”

—EDMUND BURKE, British philosopher and statesman

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”

—DOLLY PARTON, American singer and songwriter

ON WHAT ABOUT STICKY PEOPLE?

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BEWARE
SLIPPERY PEOPLE OVER FIVE
NOT ALLOWED

sign in Biarritz, France

ON THANK HEAVENS FOR THAT!

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Lawyer: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?

Expert witness: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.

actual testimony taken from court records

ON CLICHÉS, DEFEATED

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I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who were trying to defeat us in Iraq.

President George W. Bush to Lt. General Ray Odierno

MONEY MATTERS

Is China’s economic potential as big as we think it is and is anybody going to talk about it so we can understand it? Yes to both. But it takes somebody like the former China bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal (and later, successful entrepreneur in China) to translate the immense, complicated, cutthroat world of the “Wild East”—and this is the book that cracks the code.

“One of the best books of 2005.”—Barron’s

ONE BILLION CUSTOMERS: LESSONS FROM THE FRONT LINES OF DOING BUSINESS IN CHINA, by James McGregor (Free Press, 2005)

DEAD POETS SOCIETY

John Mortimer was a one-man Communist cell at Harrow school; barrister and fierce defender of free speech (i.e., obscenity) in art; writer; husband of two Penelopes (the first was the author of The Pumpkin Eater); rabid anti-Thatcherite; and, perhaps most famously, creator of the divine Rumpole and She Who Must Be Obeyed. He racked up an astonishing 45 or so novels (not all Rumpolean) and memoirs—enough to keep you wallowing in wit and wacky English characters for a long time.

THE THIRD RUMPOLE OMNIBUS (1998)

THE SECOND RUMPOLE OMNIBUS (1988)

THE FIRST RUMPOLE OMNIBUS, by John Mortimer (Penguin, 1984)

WHAT MEN WANT

The irresistible comedian and radio host Steve Harvey has a lot of ideas about what men find irresistible. And though some of his advice to women sounds a little old-fashioned and may not be all that original or surprising, Harvey is engaging, unpretentious, and very much of the people, with a diverse range of experiences and anecdotes to back up his opinions.

ACT LIKE A LADY, THINK LIKE A MAN: WHAT MEN REALLY THINK ABOUT LOVE, RELATIONSHIPS, INTIMACY, AND COMMITMENT, by Steve Harvey (Amistad, 2009)