Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 9/16/2011

9/16/1950:
In the opening game of the NFL season, the Cleveland Browns polish off the Eagles, 35-10, in Philadelphia. Coached by Paul Brown, the Browns have dominated the All-America Football Conference during the four seasons of its existence, winning all four championships. After the 1949 season, the AAFC folded and the NFL absorbed the Cleveland club from the defunct organization. To test the Browns, the NFL scheduled them against the Eagles, the 1948 and 1949 champions. After their convincing victory, the Browns will go on to a 10-2-0 regular-season record and beat the Los Angeles Rams, 30-28, in the championship game on December 24.

Birthdays:
Elgin Baylor b. 1934
Dennis Conner b. 1942
Robin Yount b. 1955
Orel Hershiser b. 1958
Mickey Tettleton b. 1960

Packers Fact:
In 2009, offensive lineman T.J. Lang became the first Packers' draftee out of Eastern Michigan since linebacker Dave Pureifory was a sixth-round choice in 1972.

“Every man has a rainy corner in his life.”

—JEAN PAUL RICHTER, German writer

ON WOW, THAT HURTS!

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Family Feud host Richard Karn: Name a sport husbands and wives can play together.

Contestant: Kickball.

KILLER THRILLER

Dripping with Spanish moss and corruption, Greg Iles’s third mystery thriller featuring Natchez mayor Penn Cage is long, violent, and immensely satisfying. Cage’s childhood friend is brutally murdered just after revealing to Cage what’s been going on—and who’s been going into—the Magnolia Queen, a floating island of vice right in Cage’s backyard. With everything he has or loves at stake, and one friend he can never bring back, Cage digs in for a long, muddy, alligator-infested fight.

THE DEVIL’S PUNCHBOWL, by Greg lIes (Scribner, 2009)