Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 8/25-27/2011

8/25/1952:
Virgil Trucks pitches the second of his two no-hitters this season as the Detroit Tigers defeat the Yankees, 1-0, in New York. His first no-hitter was on May 15, when the Tigers beat the Washington Senators on a ninth-inning walk-off homer by Vic Wertz. Otherwise, it's a terrible season for Trucks. Coming off a 13-8 record in 1951, he's 5-19 in 1952. He'll rebound next year with a 20-10 season while pitching for the St. Louis Browns and Chicago White Sox. After 17 years in the major leagues, he'll finish his career with a record of 177-135.

Birthdays:
Althea Gibson b. 1927
Rollie Fingers b. 1946
Albert Belle b. 1966
Cornelius Bennett b. 1966
Marvin Harrison b. 1972

Packers Fact:
Cornerback Charles Woodson intercepted 2 passes in 2008 in a game against Detroit. He returned 1 of the thefts for a touchdown in the Packers' 48-25 victory in Week 2.

8/26/2007:
Warner Robins, Georgia, defeats Tokyo, Japan, 3-2, in the Little League championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. With the contest knotted at 2-2 after the regulation six innings, Dalton Carriker wins the game on a walk-off home run in the eighth. The homer is followed by the Warner Robins team coming over to comfort and embrace the losing Tokyo club ina notable display of sportsmanship. Tokyo reached the championship game yesterday on a walk-off grand slam that beat Willemstad, Curacaco, 7-4.

Birthdays:
Billy DeMars b. 1925
Tom Heinsohn b. 1934
Swede Savage b. 1946
Donnie Shell b. 1952
Ricky Bottalico b. 1969

Packers Fact:
Defensive end Willie Davis made the Pro Bowl for the first of five seasons in a row in 1963.

8/27/1991:
Wild card Jimmy Connors takes the court in his 21st U.S. Open, matched with John McEnroe's brother Patrick in the first round of the tournament. He's trying for his sixth title in the Open but loses the first two sets, 4-6, 6-7, despite strong support from the huge crowd - inspired in part by the fact that he'll turn 39 two days from now...

Birthdays:
Frank Leahy b. 1907
Buddy Bell b. 1951
Bernhard Langer b. 1957
Adam Oates b. 1962
Jim Thome b. 1970

Packers Fact:
The Packers drafted quarterback Tobin Rote in the second round in 1950 out of Rice.

“There is no such thing as bravery—only degrees of fear.”

—JOHN WAINWRIGHT, English writer

“I left the room with silent dignity, but caught my foot in the mat.”

—GEORGE GROSSMITH, English comedian

“I don’t want to make money. I just want to be fabulous.”

—MARILYN MONROE, American actress

ON PROFS, DUMB

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Pasteur’s theory of germs is a ridiculous fiction. How do you think that these germs in the air can be numerous enough to develop into all these organic infusions? If that were true, they would be numerous enough to form a thick fog, as dense as iron.

Professor Pierre Pochet, 1872

ON WELL, YEAH, RIGHT, BUT . . .

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Family Fortunes host: We asked a hundred people to name a place where you wouldn’t expect to meet a nun. Janet.

Female contestant: A brothel.

ON WHAT’S THAT AGAIN?

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This extraordinary man left no children behind him, except his brother who was killed at the same time.

excerpted in a nineteenth-century Irish newspaper, writing about French revolutionary Robespierre

BESTSELLERS

In the first volume, hot-tempered computer hacker Lisbeth Salander joins the dominant character, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, in solving a 40-year-old murder case. Salander is more of a presence (without some of her tattoos) in the second book. These page-turning thrillers make up a trilogy by Stieg Larsson, who died just after completing it. Larsson’s view of his native land is one of unvarnished grit. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo won the Nordic countries’ Glass Key Award and was a bestseller all over Europe.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson, translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland (Knopf, 2008)

IT AIN’T NECESSARILY SO . . .

David Plotz is no theologian nor rabbi nor scholar. He’s just a guy who was attending a bat mitzvah one day, picked up a Bible, and after reading a few pages realized it didn’t seem to be the book his parents and teachers had long told him it was. There was Cain committing murder and getting away with it; Solomon, who seemed to prefer pagan ladies to nice Jewish girls; and God smiting people all over the place. Plotz’s reading of the Old Testament Bible isn’t particularly profound—and this isn’t a book for the devout—but it is entertaining and does pose questions of interest.

GOOD BOOK: THE BIZARRE, HILARIOUS, DISTURBING, MARVELOUS, AND INSPIRING THINGS I LEARNED WHEN I READ EVERY SINGLE WORD OF THE BIBLE, by David Plotz (HarperCollins, 2009)

PERENNIAL CLASSIC

As you lie on the beach in August, surrounded by nubile young things and soaking up the summer heat, cast your mind back to Gustav von Aschenbach on the Lido, expiring even as he is beckoned by the retreating figure of the beautiful Tadzio, and remember what a transporting moment it was to read Mann’s extraordinary masterwork. If you’re up for a reread of the great novella, consider this latest translation, which is perhaps a little less staid and heavy than the nonetheless great translation of H. T. Lowe-Porter.

DEATH IN VENICE, by Thomas Mann, translated from the German by Michael Henry Heim (1912; Harper Perennial, 2005)