What I learned from books I read

Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice - Maureen McCormick's autobiography

• When Maureen was born on August 5, 1956, her parents' second choice for a name was Christine. Later on, she'd later initially name her daughter that when she gave birth to her on May 19, 1989 before she and her husband decided on Natalie.

 Inside the Baseball Hall of Fame

• Ron Necciai struck out 27 batters in a Class D Appalachian League game on the night of May 13, 1952 in nine innings.
• Rick Wise hit two home runs and had three RBIs in his no-hitter on June 23, 1971.
• Tony Cloninger used a Denis Menke model bat when he hit two grand slams in one game on July 3, 1966 while driving in nine runs. He was the first MLB pitcher to accomplish both.
• Frank McCormick used the same first baseman mitt to play all 155 MLB regular season games while winning the MVP award for the Cincinnati Reds in 1940, a year where they won the World Series.
• In the late 1800s, the baseball gloves were small pieces of leather that only offered minimal protection and they were fingerless.
• Fred Lynn used an Adirondack bat to hit the only grand slam ever in the MLB All-Star Game.
• Roy Hobbs uses a Trombone Case to carry his magical homemade Wonderboy bat in the 1984 film The Natural.
• The actress Helen Dauvray gave a medal to members of the Detroit Wolverines when they won the championship in 1887.
• Freddy Parent earned a gold watch fob as a gift after winning the 1903 World Series.
• For the baseball figure, Harry Wright, who was born in England, he was a skilled cricket player who also enjoyed the outdoors. The happiest moments in his life were when he spent hunting in the woods with his father. He used a 10/3 quarter-inch-long hunting knife with a cracked deer antler handle which was manufactured in London and is inscribed on the blade in script lettering “H. C. Wright”. A Wright relative donated it to the Hall of Fame in 1996.
• Cy Young used a 14-half-and-half-inch-long stick of wood when he visited the home of William Shelton in Akron, OH which he took from the pile and chopped himself. He even autographed it.
• Denton True Young earned his nickname Cy when one of his teammates commented that his throwing motion looked like a cyclone.
• Back then, it was rare to find your favorite player’s likeness on anything but a baseball card. One example was when JF Hillerich & Son Co made a bat between 1911 and 1913 with the name and likeness of Tris Speaker on it.
• When Ty Cobb won the batting title in 1912, he was given his fourth straight, and final, “Honey Boy” Evans trophy.
• Ty Cobb owned a football humidor which was autographed by Knute Rockne & Pop Warner, two of football’s most legendary coaches.
• Ty Cobb & Rogers Hornsby were both members of the Free and Accepted Masons while becoming involved in two of their appended bodies which are the Shriners and Sciots. They represented their participation in them with fez hats. Both bodies donate much of their time and money to charitable organizations.
• Rogers Hornsby won a medal for winning the NL MVP in 1925 as he batted .400 for a third time and won his second Triple Crown.
• Chuck Klein won a 2’ silver MVP trophy after winning the NL MVP in 1932.
• Bobby Thomson used a Adirondack 302 “Flexible Whip Action” bat, made by McLaughlin Millard Inc. to hit the “Shot Heard Round the World” in 1951 to clinch the NL Pennant for the New York Giants.
• When the New York Giants won the NL pennant in 1951 on Bobby Thomson’s walk-off home run, Russ Hodges was psyched by the development on the field that he forgot to write the home run on his scorecard. He and Ernie Harwell, his radio booth partner, later signed the historic document before donating it to the Hall of Fame.
• Joe Gunson built the first catcher’s mitt after having a tough situation early in the 1888 season where he had a split finger and a doubleheader the next day. So he built himself a mitt and later seeked a patent unsuccessfully as other catchers were innovating mitts at the time. He gave his prototype mitt to the Hall of Fame in 1939.
• Mickey Cochrane wore a catcher’s mask nicknamed “Black Mike” due to his fierce competitive spirit.
• Edd Roush wore a Cincinnati Reds cap with sunglasses attached during his last MLB season in 1931.
• Hank Greenberg was presented with a white gold pocket watch by The Sporting News in honor of being the AL MVP in 1935.
• Walter Johnson kept the inscribed ball that William Taft threw to him on Opening Day in 1910 in a decorative box as part of his personal collection. His family later donated it to the Hall of Fame.
• Pitcher Nick Altrock used a giant baseball glove to lampoon baseball which he loved and donated it to the Hall of Fame in 1961.
• Brothers David & Alan Jackman from Pittsburgh, organized their baseball heroes into a scrapbook, using pictures of players they cut out. They got signatures at Forbes Field which they were allowed in for free. They even went to games in Cleveland and Detroit for the AL autographs they needed. In total, the scrapbook has more than 460 signatures, along with those of more than 36 Hall of Famers.

Last Words - George Carlin's autobiography

• After George Carlin hosted SNL in 1975 and 1984, he wasn’t asked by Lorne Michaels to host it again every nine years which were 1993 and 2002. Had he lived longer, he would’ve asked him again in 2011.
• New York Hospital (now Weill Cornell Medical Center) was where he was born on May 12, 1937. He survived circumcision, and for the first four weeks of his life, he lived to projectile vomit.
• His first home was the Vauxhall located at 780 Riverside Drive at 155th Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. His brother thought it was “opulent”. It had expensive new furniture, a sunken living room, and a dramatic view of the Hudson River. There was even a very large, strong black woman named Amanda who in reality, was capable of backing his father down. She became both his and Patrick’s protector when his father got out of line which he thought was plenty.
• He enjoyed working on the movie Outrageous Fortune with Shelley Long and Bette Midler.
• His mother wanted him to learn the piano like her. He took lessons and played at recitals, but he hated practicing. He had a dream where he’s trying to learn these piano pieces and he’s really frustrated because he hasn't got time, and he’s trying to learn them. Right there in the dream, he says to himself, “Hey, I don’t even take piano lessons!” When he woke up, he wrote it down and stuck it up on the wall of the room where he worked. Whenever he got humorous and his OCD kicked in, he’d look at it and say “Mary, Mary! Get out of the room.”
• He attended Patrick’s high school. He followed him into the air force. He learned to dance from him. Patrick taught him “George, if you’re gonna steal, never get caught”. It was his idea of honesty. They took care of each other and fought their mother while being partners in the struggle.
• When he started first grade at Corpus Christi, Patrick was in seventh grade. One day, when George was in class, Patrick showed up in his classroom where George joked that Sister Marion had sent him down to first grade so he could be around children that were “closer to his own emotional level. Patrick perched on a first grade chair and settled in. George came over and offered him a hunk of clay. So they made little balls out of them and threw them at other first grade students.