… of Michael Douglas. He’s 62.
… of Mrs. Douglas. Catherine Zeta-Jones is 37.
… of Will Smith. The Prince MIB is 38.
… of Heather Locklear. She’s 45.
… of Mark Hamill. Luke is 55.
… of Barbara Walters. She’s 75.
… of Phil Rizzuto. “Scooter” is 89.
The Shakespeare of sportswriters was born on this date 101 years ago. That’s Red Smith. Here he is on the 1951 World Series (after the Giants’ miraculous playoff win to be there):
Magic and sorcery and incantation and spells had taken the Giants to the championship of the National League and put them into the World Series … But you don’t beat the Yankees with a witch’s broomstick. Not the Yankees, when there’s hard money to be won.
And on Seabiscuit:
With that established, let’s talk about the death of Seabiscuit the other night. It isn’t mawkish to say there was a racehorse, a horse that gave race fans as much pleasure as any that ever lived, and one that will be remembered as long and as warmly. If someone asked you to list horses which had, apart from speed or endurance, some quality that fixed the imagination and captured the regard of more people than ever saw them run, you’ve had to mention Man o’ War and Equipoise and Exterminator, and Whirlaway, and Seabiscuit. And the honest son of Hard Tack wouldn’t be last.
And: “Writing is easy. All you have to do is sit at a typewriter and open a vein.”