Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 1/11/2012

1/11/1973:
The American League adopts the designated hitter rule, largely for economic reasons. It is hoped that the rule will generate more offense and bring additional fans through the turnstiles. In 1972, the 12 teams in the AL drew 11,438,538 fans and only three (the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, and Chicago White Sox) attracted over one million, whereas the dozen clubs in the National League combined for an attendance figure of 15,529,730 with nine franchises exceeding a million. The designated hitter will be used in the World Series for the first time in 1976 and will be utilized in every game in even-numbered years through 1985. From 1986 on, the designated hitter will be used in American League parks.

Birthdays:
Schoolboy Rowe b. 1910
Ben Crenshaw b. 1952
Freddie Solomon b. 1953
Darryl Dawkins b. 1957
Tracy Caulkins b. 1963

LIVING HISTORY

Lincoln knew nothing of battle when he was plunged into the Civil War, yet he emerged as the nation’s most brilliant commander in chief. In a narrative praised as “masterful” (The Boston Globe) and “definitive” (The Washington Post), James M. McPherson, a top Civil War historian and a Pulitzer Prize winner for Battle Cry of Freedom, examines the warrior inside the statesman who saved the Union. As The New York Times Book Review puts it, “Few historians write as well as McPherson and none evoke the sound of battle with greater clarity.”

TRIED BY WAR: ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, by James M. McPherson (Penguin, 2009)