Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/8/2012

Dick Allen, who played in the majors from 1963 through 1977, explained during a 1972 spring training interview why he rarely took batting practice: "Your body is like a bar of soap. It gradually wears down from repeated use." Allen went on to win the AL MVP award that season as a member of the White Sox.

Birthdays:
Turk Farrell b. 1934
John Havlicek b. 1940
Jim "Catfish" Hunter b. 1946
Gary Carter b. 1954
Ricky Bell b. 1955

Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/7/2012

4/71977:
The Blue Jays play their first regular-season game in franchise history and defeat the White Sox, 9-5, amid wintry conditions at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Before the game, a Zamboni is used to clear snow off of the playing surface, and flurries fall throughout the game. The Sox leave an incredible 19 men on base. Doug Ault leads the Toronto attack with two home runs in his first two plate appearances.

Birthdays:
Bobby Doerr b. 1918
Gail Cogdill b. 1937
Tony Dorsett b. 1954
Ricky Watters b. 1969
Ronde and Tiki Barber b. 1975

CHEERS!

America has a long history of distilling spirits illegally. Journalist Max Watman starts his story in the 1790s, when home distillers protested a new whiskey tax and George Washington mustered troops to put down a liquor-fueled rebellion. The book even charts NASCAR’s roots in the getaway drivers who avoided tax men while running white lightning, which, of course, Watman then learns to distill—just for research, of course! Informative and highly entertaining.

CHASING THE WHITE DOG: AN AMATEUR OUTLAW’S ADVENTURES IN MOONSHINE, by Max Watman (Simon & Schuster, 2010)

Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/6/2012

4/6/2010:
The University of Connecticut women's basketball team runs its winning streak to 78 games with a 53-47 win over Stanford in the NCAA championship game at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Connecticut trails 20-12 at halftime. The 12 points is a school record low for a half. But UConn breaks loose in the second half and leads 47-31 with 2:40 remaining before Stanford narrows the gap. Maya Moore leads the Huskies in the championship tilt with 23 points and 11 rebounds. It is Connecticut's second straight 39-0 season. Midway through the 2009-10 season, Geno Auriemma's squad broke the previous record winning streak in women's college basketball, which was 60 games and also held by Connecticut from 2001 through 2003.

Birthdays:
Ernie Lombardi b. 1908
Spider Lockhart b. 1943
Bert Blyleven b. 1957
Sterling Sharpe b. 1965
Bret Boone b. 1969

LIVING HISTORY

A massive and sweeping history of the Christian church by a professor of church history at Oxford University. Clocking in at over 1,000 pages and illustrated with color plates, it has time and space to explore philosophical questions regarding Christianity and finer points of Biblical scholarship, and does not ignore the politics that helped drive Christianity’s growth. It is an approach that The New York Times calls “sprawling, sensible and illuminating.”

CHRISTIANITY: THE FIRST THREE THOUSAND YEARS, by Diarmaid McCullough (Viking, 2010)

Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/5/2012

Trivia: Who was the only football player on a losing college team to win the coveted Heisman Trophy?

4/5/2010:
Butler's Cinderella run in the NCAA men's basketball tournament comes to end with a 61-59 loss to Duke in the championship game. The contest is played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, about six miles from the Butler campus, before a crowd of 70,930. Duke leads 60-55 with two minutes left, but two-point baskets by Matt Howard cuts the margin to 60-59 with 54 seconds remaining. It is still 60-59 when Gordon Hayward misses a two-point attempt with five seconds left, and Duke's Brian Zoubek is fouled after a rebound. Zoubek makes the first foul shot but misses the second. Hayward pulls down the rebound, dribbles to half-court, and just misses a desperation three-point shot. A private school with an enrollment of 4,200, Butler enters the tournament as a fifth-seed and comes into the championship game with a 25-game winning streak. It is Duke's fourth championship, following those in 1991, 1992, and 2001.

Birthdays:
Doggie Julian b. 1901
Doug Favell b. 1945
Rennie Stennett b. 1951
Brad Van Pelt b. 1951
Ike Hilliard b. 1976

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

When Horace Greeley famously advised, “Go west, young man!” he might have added, “and say hello to Fred Harvey.” Harvey pioneered chain restaurants with clean, inexpensive dining at every railway stop. Staffed by demure young women called “Harvey Girls,” his was an American institution that paved the way for eating out today. Praised by The New York Times as “an expansive chronicle of dining out in America,” this narrative is a must for Americana buffs.

APPETITE FOR AMERICA: HOW VISIONARY BUSINESSMAN FRED HARVEY BUILT A RAILROAD HOSPITALITY EMPIRE THAT CIVILIZED THE AMERICAN WEST, by Stephen Fried (Bantam, 2010)

Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/4/2012

4/4/1974:
On Opening Day at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium, Hank Aaron ties Babe Ruth as the all-time home run leader with his 714th career home run. The historic blast comes off Jack Billingham on Aaron's first swing of the season, a 3-1 pitch with two runners on base in the first inning. Aaron is presented with the ball by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and Vice President Gerald Ford in a ceremony at home plate. He'll break the record four days from now, on April 8, in Atlanta's first home game of the season. Aaron finishes his career with 755 home runs and holds the record until he's passed by Barry Bonds in 2007.

Birthdays:
Tris Speaker b. 1888
JoAnne Carner b. 1939
Dale Hawerchuk b. 1963
Scott Rolen b. 1975
Ben Gordon b. 1983

ENDURING CLASSIC

From this novel stems the phrase that sums up all of E. M. Forster’s work: Only connect. To read the story of Margaret Schlegel’s businesslike marriage more than a century after it was first published is to find that its allegorical themes have taken on new resonance in our physically distant, Internet-crazed society. If you think Forster is little more than the framework for some very pretty movies, connect with this book—you’ll see the error in your thinking.

HOWARDS END, by E. M. Forster (1910; Penguin Classics, 2000)

Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/3/2012

4/3/1933:
Before 14,500 at maple Leaf Garden in Toronto, the Maple Leafs defeat the Boston Bruins, 1-0, in the sixth overtime of the fifth and deciding game of the Stanley Cup semifinals. After battling through 60 minutes of regulation and five overtimes without either side denting the goal, the Maple Leaf and Bruin players agree to end the contest with a coin flip to decide the winner. The Toronto crowd jeers lustily, however, and the Maple Leafs back out of the agreement. Ken Doraty, the smallest player on the ice at five-foot-seven and 133 pounds, scores at 4:46 of the sixth overtime for the victory. The game ends at 1:50 A.M. After the exhausting win, the Maple Leafs rush for the train station for a game the following night in New York against the Rangers in the Stanley Cup final. The Rangers win the series three games to one.

Birthdays:
Bernie Parent b. 1945
Pervis Ellison b. 1967
Rodney Hampton b. 1969
Picabo Street b. 1971
Michael Olowokandi b. 1975

LIVING HISTORY

In January 1910, unusual weather conditions drove the Seine 20 feet above its usual level, a disaster whose effects lingered for weeks, drowning the City of Lights in a chaos of disease-ridden canals and lagoons, looting and street violence. In Jeffrey Jackson’s evenhanded telling, the police prefect, Louis Lépine, strides through the city with rubber boots and a soothing air of command, emerging as a hero in this “tight, concentrated tale of adversity and survival” (The New York Times).

PARIS UNDER WATER: HOW THE CITY OF LIGHT SURVIVED THE GREAT FLOOD OF 1910, by Jeffrey H. Jackson (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)

Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/2/2012

4/2/1972:
The Philadelphia Flyers miss a chance at the playoffs int he last four seconds of the final game of the regular season. The Flyers need a win or a tie against the Sabres to advance. Philadelphia has a 2-0 lead midway through the second period, but allows Buffalo to tie the contest at the 8:47 mark of the third period. The two clubs are still deadlocked with four seconds remaining when Garry Meehan of the Sabres scores on a 30-foot shot past Philadelphia goaltender Doug Favell. The 3-2 Sabre win disqualifies the Flyers from the Flyers from the playoffs with a record of 26-38-14, but Philadelphia will not miss them again until 1990.

Birthdays:
Luke Appling b. 1907
Carmen Basilio b. 1927
Dick Radatz b. 1937
Don Sutton b. 1945
Linford Christie b. 1960

WHODUNIT

Irene Huss is stretched to the limit between the demands of her family and her intense work as an inspector in the Göteborg Violent Crimes Unit. When she is drawn into a murder investigation, she follows a trail of sordidness to find the liberal foundations of Swedish society cracking under the weight of drugs, violence, and racism. If you’re jonesing for the next Stieg Larsson, you’ll find some comfort here.

DETECTIVE INSPECTOR HUSS, by Helene Tursten (Soho Crime, 2004)

Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/1/2012

4/1/1972:
With Opening Day scheduled for April 5, major league baseball players go on strike. The dispute centers on health and pension issues and won't be settled until April 13, resulting in the loss of 86 games. It's the first time that regular-season major league games are canceled because of a strike. Play begins on April 15.

Birthdays:
Bo Schembachler b. 1929
Ron Perranoski b. 1936
Rusty Staub b. 1944
Norm Van Lier b. 1947
Scott Stevens b. 1964