Historically Speaking: 8-19-09

It might look like we've been lounging, but behind the scenes, we're working pretty hard. At being lazy. Anyway, study some stuff, post-jump.

* It was today in 1962 when Homero Blancas, Jr. shot an all-time low score in the game of golf, a 55. His college game that day in Longview, Texas consisted of 13 birdies and an eagle. Blancas tallied 18 holes-in-one in his career.

* On this date in 1988, the New York Rangers signed Guy (pronounced Ghee) Lafleur to a contract with some letters and numbers typed on it. The former Montreal right-winger flanked his lone year in New York with 14 consecutive in the 'Treal, and back-to-back seasons as a Nordique du Quebec before hanging up the skates. All said, Lafleur lit the lamp 560 times, dished scoring passes off on nearly 800 occasions, won five Stanley Cups, played in six All-Star games, led the league in assists in 1976-77, then goals the following season, a campaign in which he also led the league in game-winning tallies and plus-minus ratio. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988.

* The year was 1992 when the Boone family made Major League Baseball history by becoming the first three-generation family to log time in the Bigs: Ray Boone from 1948-60; son Bob, 1972-90, and on this day 17 years ago, Bob's son Bret. Each generation representative would log at least 13 seasons in the Majors.

* In 1995, Bruce Seldon and Joe Hipp stepped into the squared circle for a World Boxing Association title bout in Las Vegas. Seldon, by way of technical knockout, emerged victorious after 10 rounds. Seldon had acquired the belt four months earlier when he and Tony Tucker fought for the title vacated by George Foreman, when Foreman refused to fight Tucker in '94. Seldon hung onto the WBA belt for a couple of months, got knocked the fuggout (in a non-title fight) in the first round against Mike Tyson in September 1996, and eventually surrendered the title to one Evander Holyfield, who had it awarded to him in June of '97 when Tyson, uh, bit both of Holyfield's ears.

* The following year, a guy by the name of Paul Molitor, suited up as a Minnesota Twin, hit his 534th career double, which tied Lou Gehrig's record, which is awesome, but noteworthy in that this might be the first and the last time in HoGstory in which we reference Paul Molitor on consecutive days.

And since we mentioned holes in one earlier, your Sports Illustrated quote of the day came from the mouth of...



...PGA Senior golfer Bob Brue, who, circa 1991, said, "I used to play golf with a guy who cheated so badly that he once had a hole in one and wrote down zero on the scorecard."