Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 9/5-9/6/2011

9/5/1961:
Lee Thomas of the Los Angeles Angels has a career day by becoming the first player in major league history to collect at least nine hits and hit at least tw home runs in a doubleheader. It happens against the Athletics in Kansas City, although the Angels lose twice by scores of 7-3 and 13-12. Thomas has four singles and a double in five plate appearances in the first contest. In the nightcap, he has three homers and a single in six at-bats, along with eight RBIs. The Angels overcome a 9-2 deficit to carry a 12-11 lead into the ninth, but the A's win on a two-out, two-run walk-off homer by Bobby Del Greco.

Birthdays:
Nap Lajoie b. 1874
Bill Mazeroski b. 1936
John Ferguson b. 1938
Billy Kilmer b. 1939
Dennis Scott b. 1968

Packers Fact:
Antonio Freeman led the NFL when he amassed 1,424 receiving yards in 1998. He averaged 17.0 yards on his 84 catches, 14 of which went for touchdowns.

9/6/1951:
NBC announces that this year's World Series will be the first sporting event ever telecast from coast to coast. As it turns out, the New York Yankees (98-56) will play the New York Giants (98-59) at Yankee Stadium in the opening game on October 4. The first World Series telecast took place in 1947. The participants were the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers, and the games were shown only in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Schenectady.

Birthdays:
Hal Jeffcoat b. 1924
Dow Finsterwald b. 1929
Ron Boone b. 1946
Kevin Willis b. 1962
Tim Henman b. 1974

Packers Fact:
Packers coach Vince Lombardi played college football at Fordham, where he was one of the legendary "Seven Blocks of Granite".

“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labor.”

—ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, Scottish writer

“Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage: it can be delightful.”

—GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Anglo-Irish playwright

ON W-O-R-K . . . HMM,
WE COUNTED AND WE GOT FOUR

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We have a lot of kids who don’t know what work means. They think work is a four-letter word.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

ON HOLD THE HEDGEHOGS, PLEASE

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• Fish Toad With Mushrooms and Hedgehogs

• Chinstrap With Get Them

menu items, Santiago, Spain

WAR AND PEACE IN BOSTON

Bestselling author (Gone, Baby, Gone and Mystic River) Dennis Lehane has written a brilliant epic of Boston and America in the period during and after World War I. The two protagonists, Boston cop Danny Coughlin and a black man on the lam, Luther Laurence, struggle mightily in the shadows of Babe Ruth, “Gene” O’Neill, John (J. Edgar) Hoover, and other historical notables, as well as such historical eruptions as the Spanish flu epidemic, the beginnings of the NAACP, and a climactic Boston police strike. A novel of both breadth and suspense, The Given Day is a rewarding read.

THE GIVEN DAY, by Dennis Lehane (William Morrow, 2008)

WIKISTORY

It began in 2001, the online encyclopedia that anyone could write and edit, and from there it grew to be the largest encyclopedia in the world, with more than 10 million articles in more than 50 languages, 2.5 million of them in English. Andrew Lih is himself a fan and a “wikipedian” contributor. His book is full of stories about founder Jimmy Wales and the conflicts and controversies that have attended the encyclopedia’s rise. Lih’s enthusiasm is infectious, and it makes his book a pleasure to read.

THE WIKIPEDIA REVOLUTION: HOW A BUNCH OF NOBODIES CREATED THE WORLD’S GREATEST ENCYCLOPEDIA, by Andrew Lih (Hyperion, 2009)