Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Dday 2/1-2/2012

2/1/1914:
The New York Giants and Chicago White Sox play to a 3-3 tie in Cairo, Egypt, in a contest called by darkness after 10 innings. In attendance is Abbas Hilmi II, Khedive of Egypt, who watches with his 43 wives. Tomorrow, photographs will be taken of White Sox and Giants players in front of the Great Sphinx, and a mock game is filmed in front of the Pyramids. The visit to Egypt is part of a world tour lasting from October 1913 through March 1914. The two clubs also play in Japan, China, the Philippines, Australia, Ceylon, Italy (where Pope Pius X attends), France, and England (with King George V in the stands). The world tour will conclude just in time. By August 1914, Europe will be embroiled in a world war, with Great Britain and France pitted against Germany. The U.S. will become involved militarily in World War I by April 1917.

Birthdays:
Paul Blair b. 1944
Dick Snyder b. 1944
T.R. Dunn b. 1955
Malik Sealy b. 1970
Tommy Salo b. 1971

2/2/1962:
During the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden, John Uelses becomes the first pole vaulter to exceed 15 feet on a jump,. The first to reach 15 feet was Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam of the United States in 1940. At the time of the record, Uelses is a corporal in the United States Marines. He is helped by a new fiberglass pole, which is more resilient than the wooden poles previously used and gives vaulters more upward thrust. The fiberglass poles will revolutionize the sport. Bob Seagren will win the gold medal at the 1968 Olympics with a vault of 17 feet, 8-1/2 inches. The 18-foot mark will be surpassed in 1972, 19 feet in 1987, and 20 feet in 1992.

Birthdays:
Red Schoendienst b. 1923
Gary Dornhoefer b. 1943
Arturs Irbe b. 1967
Sean Elliott b. 1968
Scott Erickson b. 1968

CONTEMPORARY CLASSIC

Irish fiction can be somber stuff, freighted by the complexities of history. Roddy Doyle rises above the fray and explores what it means to be Irish with humor and absorbing, pitch-perfect writing. Protagonist Henry Smart—here having returned to his native Ireland to help John Ford film The Quiet Man—is unforgettable in this story that the Denver Post called “magnificent.”
    If you’re just meeting Henry Smart, be sure to pick up the previous books in The Last Roundup trilogy: A Star Called Henry and Oh, Play That Thing.

THE DEAD REPUBLIC, by Roddy Doyle (Viking, 2010)

FAMILY TIES

When Roger Rosenblatt’s daughter died suddenly, he and his wife moved to their son-in-law’s home to take care of their three young grandchildren. The resulting account is a soaring, unsentimental look at familial love and how ordinary people cope with extraordinary, impossible situations. Rosenblatt’s warmth and humor make for a moving, life-affirming read, one The Washington Post calls “a textbook on what constitutes perfect writing.”

MAKING TOAST, by Roger Rosenblatt (Ecco, 2010)