Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 8/15/2011

8/15/1941:
The Red Sox win a forfeit in Washington because the Senators fail to protect the field during a rainstorm. The game is stopped in the eighth inning with the Senators leading 6-3, but the infield is left uncovered and the contest is called after 40 minutes when the umpires declare the field unplayable. Red Sox manager Joe Cronin will complain to American League president Will Harridge that the game could have been resumed if the tarp had been spread on the infield. Harridge agrees and forfeits the game to Boston in a decision announced on August 27.

Birthdays:
Lionel Taylor b. 1936
Gene Upshaw b. 1945
Ivan Boldirev b. 1949
Scott Brosius b. 1966
Kerri Walsh b. 1978

Packers Fact:
Cornerback Charles Woodson's interception return for a touchdown against Cincinnati in Week 2 of 2009 made him the first player in the Packers' storied history to return at least 1 pick for a touchdown in four consecutive seasons.

ON WHA?!?

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Family Feud host Richard Dawson: Name something you can’t use without water.

Contestant: Your ice cream cone.

Life is a jest, and all things show it.
I thought so once, and now I know it.

—JOHN GAY, English poet

TRUE PIRATES

Last month we exhorted you to check out an old classic tale of pirates and the high seas, Daniel Defoe’s The Life Adventures and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton. If you’re hungry for more hardtack and rum, horniness and cussing, we urge you to dip into this fascinating and delightful modern study of the pirates of yore. David Cordingly, formerly curator of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, attacks his subjects with gusto—from the real-life Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, and others to fictional favorites such as Captain Hook and Long John Silver.

UNDER THE BLACK FLAG: THE ROMANCE AND THE REALITY OF LIFE AMONG THE PIRATES, by David Cordingly (Random House, 2006)