Book Talk: Author compiles ‘Weird Moments in Cleveland Sports’

In 2007, a swarm of bugs was a major factor in an American League Division Series game between the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees. That’s weird. Journalist Vince Guerrieri has rustled up many more examples for “Weird Moments in Cleveland Sports: Bottlegate, Bedbugs, and Burying the Pennant and More!”

Also weird: That time an Indians player got shot in the leg while riding in a bus to the airport. He was lucky, though; he was dressed in a cheerleader’s uniform and his go-go boots lessened the impact of the bullet.

“Weird” can mean different things to different people, and some of Guerrieri’s selections might rightly be looked at in other lights. Consider “absurd,” as in when the Browns had a giant banner made to hang across the “Dawg Pound” section; the banner was made in sections which got in the wrong order, so it ended up reading “GPODAWUND.”

There’s also “boneheaded,” as Guerrieri recalls the notorious 1974 10-Cent Beer Night promotion, and “baffling,” when someone stole the bronze bust of O.J. Simpson from the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton and abandoned it unharmed the next day along I-77; the case remains open.

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A chapter called “Athletes Behaving Badly” could have been tripled in length, and there’s another chapter on the capriciousness of various team owners. It seems that the peculiarities of Cleveland sports can fill a book.

“Weird Moments in Cleveland Sports: Bottlegate, Bedbugs, and Burying the Pennant and More!” (198 pages, softcover) costs $16.95 from Gray & Co. Vince Guerrieri is a journalist for the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram and the Medina Gazette. His other books include “Ohio Sports Trivia.”

Vince Guerrieri will talk about “Weird Moments in Cleveland Sports” at 1:15 p.m. Saturday at the Baseball Heritage Museum at League Park, 601 Lexington Ave., Cleveland.

‘Jeep’

Roy E. Ault wants to make sure Jeep is not forgotten. In his biography “Jeep,” Ault explains that “In my day most people knew of him — he was famous.” Glenn Davis died in 2009, and it would be a shame if the legacy of the man called the greatest athlete in Summit County history were lost.

Davis, who won gold medals in hurdles and the 1,600-meter relay at the Melbourne and Rome Olympics and later played wide receiver for the Detroit Lions in 1960 and 1961. He was born in West Virginia in 1934, 10th of 11 children; his father worked as a coal miner and in a steel mill. He was nicknamed “Jeep” after Eugene the Jeep, a character in the Popeye cartoons who could move so fast it was like teleporting.

Davis was almost 18 when his parents died within days of each other. He was sent to Barberton to live with a much-older brother; from there, he attended Ohio State on a track scholarship, where he met Ault.

Ault researches both sides of Davis’ family and his wife’s. Though some of these achievements are almost 65 years ago, Ault finds people who remember and researches contemporary coverage, like a 1960 Sports Illustrated cover story and a laudatory 2000 Beacon Journal interview with decathlon champion Rafer Johnson, Davis’s roommate in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

“Jeep” (109 pages, softcover) costs $20 from online retailers. Roy E. Ault wrote a column in the Charlotte Sun in Charlotte County, Florida, and worked as a teacher and coach in Ohio. His books include “You’re Driving Me Crazy,” about the driving school he owned.

Events

Mandel Jewish Community Center: The Jewish Book Festival continues with Benedetta Jasmine Guetta, talking about “Cooking alla Giudia” in a virtual presentation from 11 a.m. to noon Sunday. From 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, Lisa Barr talks about her bestselling novel “Woman on Fire,” about a journalist investigating an art masterpiece looted by Nazis. On Nov. 20, Jonathan Dusky (“A Death in Jerusalem”) and Andy Dunn (“Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind”) appear in Zoom events. Register at mandeljcc.org.

Fireside Book Shop (29 N. Franklin St., Chagrin Falls): Veterinary oncologist Renee Alsarraf talks about “Sit, Stay, Heal: What Dogs Can Teach Us About Living Well,” 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday.

Akron-Summit County Public Library (Richfield branch, 3761 S. Grant St.): Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour appears in a virtual reading and question-and-answer session, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday. Register at akronlibrary.org.

Twinsburg Public Library: Meghan O’Rourke discusses “The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness” in a virtual appearance from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday. Register at twinsburglibrary.org.

Hudson Library & Historical Society: Patti Reagan Davis talks about “Floating in the Deep End: How Caregivers Can See Beyond Alzheimer’s” in a Zoom event at 7 p.m. Monday. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Gary Rivlin (“Katrina: After the Flood”) talks about “Saving Main Street: Small Business in the Time of COVID-19” in a Zoom event at 7 p.m. Wednesday. At 11 a.m. Saturday, Rose Levy Beranbaum discusses “The Cookie Bible” in a Zoom event at 11 a.m. Saturday. Register at hudsonlibrary.org.

Cuyahoga County Public Library: Authors Mary Kay Andrews (“The Homewreckers”), Susan Mallery (“Home Sweet Christmas”) and Viola Shipman (“A Wish for Winter”) in a virtual appearance, 7 to 8 p.m. Monday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.

Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library: The Online Author Talk Series continues with Kwame Christian, who will discuss “How to Have Difficult Conversations about Race: Practical Tools for Necessary Change in the Workplace and Beyond” in a virtual appearance at noon Tuesday. Register at smfpl.org.

Medina County District Library (Lodi branch, 635 Wooster St.): Shelley Shepard Gray talks about her many Amish romance and inspirational novels, 5 p.m. Tuesday. Register at mcdl.info.

Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library (30 Public Square, Willoughby): Paul Orlousky, a longtime investigative journalist for WOIO Channel 19, talks about his career and signs “Punched, Kicked, Spat On and Sometimes Thanked: Memoirs of a Cleveland TV News Reporter,” 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Register at we247.org.

Cuyahoga County Public Library (Brecksville branch, 9089 Brecksville Road): As part of the Cleveland Jewish Book Festival, NBC correspondent Jen Maxfield talks about “More After the Break: A Reporter Returns to Ten Unforgettable News Stories,” 12 to 1 p.m. Wednesday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.

Jenks 1929 (1884 Front St., Cuyahoga Falls): Akron musician Marc Lee Shannon launches his memoir “Sober Chronicles: My Journey of Discovery Along the Path to Recovery,” followed by a performance of the Marc Shannon Trio, 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday.

Dover Public Library (525 N. Walnut St.): Jess Montgomery will talk about “The Echoes,” fourth in the Kinship historical mystery series inspired by a real-life female sheriff in 1920s Appalachia, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Register at doverlibrary.org.

Music Box Supper Club (1148 Main Ave., Cleveland): Dan Coughlin, author of “Pass the Nuts: More Stories about the Most Unusual, Eccentric and Outlandish People I've Known in Four Decades as a Sports Journalist” and other books of anecdotes, joins the Cleveland Stories Dinner Parties Series, 7 p.m. Thursday. Dinner is $20; the lecture is free. Go to musicboxcle.com.

Loganberry Books: Lina Zeldovich, author of “The Other Dark Matter: The Science and Business of Turning Waste into Wealth and Health,” joins the virtual Peculiar Book Club at 7 p.m. Thursday. Register at loganberrybooks.com.

Mac’s Backs (1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights): Sorayya Khan talks about her memoir “We Take Our Cities With Us” with Dan Chaon (“Sleepwalk”), 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

Visible Voice Books (2258 Professor Ave., Cleveland): Larissa N.N. Davila launches “Cael’s Shadow,” Book Two in her Sky Seekers fantasy series, 7 p.m. Friday.

Stark County Public Library (Jackson Township Branch, 7487 Fulton Drive NW): Members of The Write Stuff Authors Group of Canton present “Polish and Publish Your Writing,” followed by a question-and-answer and book signing, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. Authors are Kori Frazier Morgan (“Bone China Girls: A Poetic Account of a Female Crime”), Debbie Edmisten (“A Just Measure”), David Balog (Necromancer’s Lament), Cat Russell (“Soul Picked Clean”), Craig May (Phantasmagoric Double Features), Roger Gordon (“The Cleveland Browns All-Time All-Stars: The Best Players at Each Position for the Browns”), Brookes Renollet (Romance of La Pucelle: Passion in Orleans) and Don Ake (“Turkey Terror at My Door! Misadventures and Memoirs of a Middle-Aged Man”).

Cleveland Public Library: Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for “The 1619 Project,” joins the Writers & Readers Series in a virtual appearance at noon Saturday, talking to Connie Hill-Johnson, chair of the Cleveland Foundation board of directors. Register at cpl.org.

Email information about books of local interest, and event notices at least two weeks in advance to BeaconBookTalk@gmail.com and bjnews@thebeaconjournal.com. Barbara McIntyre tweets at @BarbaraMcI.

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Book Talk: Author compiles ‘Weird Moments in Cleveland Sports’