Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 9/23/2011

9/23/1992:

Manon Rheaume becomes the first woman to play for an NHL team when she joins the Tampa Bay Lightning as goaltender in a 6-4 exhibition game loss to the St. Louis Blues. She plays one period, faces nine shots and allows two goals. Her second appearance will come on April 10, 1993, when she plays the entire game in an 8-6 loss to the Cincinnati Cyclones. She’ll play a total of 24 games for six minor league teams between 1992 and ‘97, and another with the Flint Generals of the International Hockey League in 2009. She’ll also win a silver medal in the 1998 Olympics while playing on Canada’s women’s team.

Birthdays:

Marty Schottenheimer b. 1943

Larry Mize b. 1958

Pete Harnisch b. 1966

Jeff Circillo b. 1969

Eric Montrose b. 1971

Packers Fact:

Quarterback Tobin Rote, who played for the Packers from 1950 to 1956, also played in the Canadian Football League and the American Football League before his retiring following the 1966 season.

“Confidence of success is almost success, and obstacles often fall by themselves before a determination to overcome them.”

—LORD SALISBURY, British prime minister

ON FOOD MIXUPS, BABY-MEXICAN

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Mountain View Friday
Wal-Mart: Police receive a report of a newborn infant found in a trash can. Upon investigation, officers discover it was only a burrito.

from the police blotter column of a California newspaper

THE AWFUL TRUTH ABOUT EL DORADO

New Yorker staff writer David Grann came across some diaries of “the last individualist explorer,” Percy Fawcett. Fawcett had set off in 1925 to find an EI Dorado, which he called “Z,” hidden in the depths of the Amazon rain forest. He never returned. Many other adventurers searched for him and his lost city in the ensuing years, with spectacular lack of success. Grann, a man with “a terrible sense of direction,” became so obsessed with Fawcett that he decided to make his own expedition. The Lost City of Z is the gripping account of his quest.

THE LOST CITY OF Z: A TALE OF DEADLY OBSESSION IN THE AMAZON, by David Grann (Doubleday, 2009)