Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 8/19/2011

8/19/1951:
St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck sends 3'7" Eddie Gaedel to bat in the first inning of the second game of a doubleheader against the Tigers at Sportsman's Park. Wearing a small Browns uniform bearing the number 1/8, Gaedel leads off as a pinch hitter for Frank Saucier. Detroit pitcher Bob Cain walks him on four pitches and Jim Delsing is sent in as a pinch runner. Between games of the twin bill is a massive celebration of the Browns' 50th season in St. Louis. During the festivities, Gaedel is announced as "another outstanding player signed by the Browns in their expanded worldwide scouting system."

Birthdays:
Bill Shoemaker b. 1931
Anthony Munoz b. 1958
Ricky Pierce b. 1959
Morten Andersen b. 1960
Mary Jo Fernandez b. 1971

Packers Fact:
While at Boston College in 2008, B.J. Raji (a nose tackle in the Packers' 3-4) became the first defensive tackle in 23 years to lead the team in sacks. (He had 8 that season.)

WHO MAKES
TIMID REQUESTS,
INVITES DENIAL.

—SENECA, Roman statesman and writer

ON LOSSES, PAINFUL

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U.S. MUTUAL FUNDS ROCKED
Industry has lost more than 20% in asses under management. Pain may not be over yet.

from a story on MarketWatch.com (thanks to Jed Galbraith)

COMPULSIVE READING

Hats off to Babbette Hines for her love of ephemera and her talent for bringing out its permanently fascinating qualities. In the more recent volume, as in Photobooth (also from Princeton Architectural Press), Hines has hunted out, found, and culled the best of the best from scraps of paper. The vulnerable, the class clowns, the poseurs, the deadly earnest—all are exposed here to our greedy glance, with the double satisfaction of realism and anonymity.

LOVE LETTERS, LOST, by Babette Hines (Princeton Architectural Press, 2004)

PHOTOBOOTH (2002)