What are the rules of cribbage?

There are two games by the name of cribbage, one played with cards and one played with billiards. Our patron was referring to cribbage in the context of billiards, so we checked The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards by Mike Shamos.

Cribbage in pool is evidently similar to cribbage in cards. While part of the card game is getting combinations that equal fifteen, the point of the pool game is score five “cribbages,” a cribbage in this sense meaning a pair of balls that add up to fifteen. A cribbage must be made either in the same shot or in two consecutive shots, and the fifteen ball can only be pocketed after all the two-ball cribbages (of which there are seven) are gone. At that point, the fifteen ball counts as the only remaining cribbage. When racking the balls before the game, the fifteen must be placed in the center of the third row, and no two of the three corner balls may form a cribbage.

According to Shamos, cribbage is also known as “fifteen points” or “pair pool.”

For more information, we also have David G. Alciatore’s The Illustrated Principles of Pool and Steve Mizerak’s Complete Book of Pool.

How did Youngstown State University get their mascot?

“How did the YSU Penguins get to be penguins? Why not something like cardinals or bears?”

One of our patrons called to ask about the origin of Youngstown State University’s mascot. While Ohio does get cold, the penguin still seems like a strange choice. We checked the YSU sports website and found a whole page about their mascot, including two stories of how it came to be.

Both stories are set on January 30, 1933, the night of a men’s basketball game at West Liberty State, West Virginia. YSU didn’t have any kind of mascot yet, though they were sometimes referred to as the Locals. Students on the men’s varsity basketball team had been tossing around mascot ideas with their friends all season, but hadn’t settled on any that they liked.

According to one story, as the team was driving to West Virginia through snow so deep that they sometimes needed to get out of their cars to push them out of snowdrifts, someone, perhaps inspired by the weather, suggested the penguin. Everyone in the car with them loved the idea, as did the rest of the team, and the penguin was accepted as a mascot by the end of the season without ever having to put it to a vote.

The other story, which has more of a ring of legend to it, tells that a spectator at the Youngstown vs. West Liberty game saw the men on the court stomping their feet and flapping their arms. They thought that the team looked like penguins, and the nickname stuck. While the first story is more likely, this one is also charming.

For more information on Youngstown history, Frederick Blue’s Mahoning Memories and Sherry Lee Linkon’s Steeltown USA are both available for borrowing. The College Basketball Book, published by Sports Illustrated, can be ordered through CLEVNET, and anyone interested in penguins can check out Tui De Roy’s Penguins: The Ultimate Guide.

Can Professional Athletes File Workman’s Comp Claims?

“Can professional athletes file workman’s comp claims?” Watching hard hitting football games made the Newton Falls Public Library staff wonder about the answer to this question as well.

 Online searching of the terms “professional athletes workman’s comp claims” brought up a wide assortment of websites and articles.  The April 6, 2010 New York Times article, Teams Dispute Workers’ Comp Rights by Alan Schwarz discusses this issue, the legal cases, and their implications. According to the article, “California provides the only worker’s compensation system that allows retired pro athletes to file claims for long-term injuries sustained on playing fields years and even decades before. . .many of them by satisfying California’s unique requirement that they played at least one game within the state borders.” At present, teams are trying to have their cases taken from California and moved to their own states.

The Ohio Revised Code 4123.54 also addresses this issue: K2b) "The professional sports league at all times maintains workers’ compensation insurance that provides coverage for the players and coaches of the sports league.”

Questions Asked Are Interesting and Varied

The questions asked of the Newton Falls Public Library staff can vary according to difficulty and time needed to locate the needed answer.  We recently received two questions that were interesting, but not time consuming.  “Eldrich Woods is an alias for whom?” and “What is the shift pattern for a 1978 1500 Chevy truck?”

An online search for “eldrich woods alias” took our staff to crosswordtracker.com. This is a site for individuals completing crossword puzzles, which our patron admitted to be doing. The answer is: Tiger. Once the answer was found by the staff member, who does not pay much attention to golf, she realized that it was a clue people more interested in the sport probably would have found fairly obvious.

 The answer for the second question was a little more difficult to locate, but was found using the terms “1978 chevy truck shift pattern.” The online discussion forum, ChevyTruckWorld notes that there are several possibilities.  With the patron’s assistance we were able to locate the proper shift sequence for him.  The shift positions are, from all the way forward nearest the dashboard to the back, 4Lo-N-2Lo-4Hi.

Why Are Marathons 26.2 Miles Long?

“My kids run marathons. Why are they 26.2 miles long? That seems like such an odd number.” The Newton Falls Public Library staff remembered that had something to do with the Ancient Greeks, but couldn’t remember the exact story for our patron.

We first went to Library Databases on our website, selected the Clevnet Databases, then Almanacs, Dictionaries & Encyclopedias, and Oxford Reference Online. It stated that “The standard marathon is 42.2km (26.2mi) long, which was the distance run by the ancient Greek soldier who brought news to Athens of victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon (490 BC).”

Marathon Runner's Handbook by Bruce Fordyce (p.8) has several stories relating to the origins of the marathon and the distance. Fordyce says that “structured distance racing first appeared with the Ancient Greek Olympic Games which date back to 472 BC.” None raced the 42.2km at that time though. “The first official marathon of this distance was raced at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens . . . the distance was standardized in 1908, at the Olympic Games held in London.”  He also tells three stories similar to the information in Oxford Reference Online, with runners running from Marathon to Athens and also from Athens to Sparta. The stories tell of “trained messengers running very long distances, but it is certain there was no distance remotely resembling a marathon at the Ancient Greek Olympic Games.”

The Ancient Olympics by Nigel Spivey (p.114) supports Fordyce, confirming that the original episode has become muddled in the retelling. It was for that first modern Olympics in 1896 that a course was mapped from Marathon to Athens, and the distance we view as a marathon set.

Pitching Horseshoes is Popular in Newton Falls

“Pitching horseshoes seems to be very popular in Newton Falls. How did the game begin?” Knowing the popularity of the game in the community made this an interesting question for the Newton Falls Public Library staff. Rules of the Game: the complete illustrated encyclopedia of all the sports of the world by the Diagram Group has the rules and set up for horseshoe pitching. 2009 ESPN Sports Almanac: the definitive sports reference book has information about many sports, including chess, eating, and fishing but nothing about horseshoes. Facts & Dates of American Sports by Gorton Carruth and Eugene Ehrlich had some historical information about horseshoes. The first known clubs were in 1892 in Meadville, Pa. and East Liverpool, Oh. Kansas State College (now Kansas State University) held the first pitching tournament in 1905 [p.50].

An online search resulted in some surprises. The 2009 Ohio Senior Olympics Games Regional Horseshoe Tournament was held on Thursday, July 9 at the Newton Falls VFW Post
3332 [www.ohioseniorolympics.org].

We also discovered a local question at the website of the professional bowler Walter Ray [www.walterray.com/answers2/horseshoes6.shtml]. Before taking up bowling as a teen, Mr. Ray was a child prodigy horseshoe pitcher [www.imdb.com/name/nm0931908/bio]. A fan from Warren was looking to see if he was going to again attend a Newton Falls horseshoe tournament.

The most detailed information was found at the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association’s website [www.horseshoepitching.com/gameinfo/history.html]. The Association feels that the game has its origins in Ancient Greece. “There is a tradition that the camp followers of the Grecian armies, who could not afford the discus, took discarded horseshoes, set up a stake and began throwing horseshoes at it . . .Following the Revolutionary War, it was said by England's Duke of Wellington that “the War was won by pitchers of horse hardware." The game was very popular with soldiers. “The impetus for the NHPA as we know it today grew out of the throwing of mule shoes in the Union Camps during the Civil War. Courts sprang up in the backyards of Union states.” Rules for the game were established in 1869 in England, but no tournaments held nor records kept until 1909. The first Horseshoe World Championship was held in 1910 in Bronson, Kansas. The championship belt won by W. Frank Jackson had horseshoes attached to it.

How many piercings and tattoos does Natasha Kai have?

“How many piercings and tattoos does Natasha Kai have?” This inquiry required a follow-up by the Newton Falls Public Library staff, as we weren’t familiar with the lady in question. The patron informed us that Natasha is a soccer player. She is also a member of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team and 2008 gold medal winner. Checking the library’s catalog showed that Mia Hamm is the only female soccer player about whom we have a book.

The online search began with finding out more about Natasha Kai, a 25-year-old from Hawaii. The Team USA website [http://soccer.teamusa.org] states that she has 19 tattoos. The U.S. Soccer site [http://ussoccer.com] concurs, noting her famous ‘sleeve’ tattoo and the newest one which is stars on the back of her neck.

ESPN Soccer [http://soccernet.espn.go.com] mentions her multiple piercings but does not give a count. None of the previously mentioned websites gives any information about her piercings, though we can see from the photograph on the U.S. Soccer site that both ears and her bottom lip are pierced. Other than several websites mentioning facial piercings, none gave an exact number for us to tell our patron. However, the staff did learn some very interesting information about Natasha, whose full name is Natasha Kanani Janine Kai. The oldest child of her father who is a professional singer/performer at the Polynesian Cultural Center of Oahu and Hawaiian history teacher and her mother who is also a teacher, she is the first player from Hawaii to play on the Women's National Team and a Women's World Cup Team. There is a very interesting online video with Natasha from USSoccer.com on You Tube [www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrs-0L6NNcc]; she speaks about playing soccer and her family.

Tattoos are a subject about which other patrons often make inquiries, especially those considering ideas for their body art. The library’s collection has several books on the topic, including The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting a Tattoo by John Reardon, Tattoos and Body Piercing by Leanne K. Currie-McGhee, and Ink: the not-just-skin-deep guide to getting a tattoo and The Tattoo Encyclopedia: a guide to choosing your tattoo both by Terisa Green. Many considering tattoos look at the books on calligraphy for inspiration such as Chinese Calligraphy Made Easy: a structured course in creating beautiful brush lettering by Rebecca Yue and The Calligrapher's Bible: 100 complete alphabets and how to draw them by David Harris. One of the library’s many art books may also be a source of creative ideas for those considering getting a tattoo.

Olympic trials

“I was listening to a news story about the Olympic track trials, and they said someone hadn’t broken a world record because of a tail wind. How do they determine when a tail wind affects a runner and do they take into consideration head winds as well?” Questions such as this one help to make our days interesting at the Newton Falls Public Library.

Our first stop is always our library catalog. Winning Track and Field for Girls by Ed Housewright is filled with historical information about the sports and athletes, technical information including drills, workouts, and records through the early part of this decade. However, the answer to our question was not to be found. Spalding Book of Rules by Bingo Broido and The Book of Rules: a visual guide to laws of every commonly played sport and game were the next sources we examined. The Book of Rules addressed the first part of our patron’s question. “In races of 200 m or less, the wind speed should be recorded wherever possible. . .the wind should be measured for a 13-second period in hurdle events and for 10 seconds in others. . .An aiding wind of more than 2 m per second nullifies a record time” (p.180).

As neither book gave any information about head winds, we next took a look at USA Track & Field website. According to the site, many athletes have been breaking world records at the Olympic trials. On June 29, 2008 at the trials in Eugene, Oregon, with 4.1 meters per second wind behind him, Tyson Gay ran the fastest 100 m ever run, 9.68. Unfortunately, because of the aforementioned rule this will not be counted as a world record. “Article V – Records” of the 2008 USATF Competition Rules (p.155) includes the wind reading requirements for the 200 Meter Hurdles (Youth Athletics), the Long Jump, Triple Jump, and the Combined Events. It seems that while a strong tail wind is taken into consideration in these events, head winds are not. Presumably because if you break a record going into a strong head wind, you have truly earned the distinction.

Before this year’s summer Olympics begin, learn more with A Picture History of the Olympics by James Coote and 100 Greatest Moments in Olympic History by Bob Greenspan. Get in a winner’s mindset by participating in the last few weeks of Game On @ the Newton Falls Public Library. There are still prizes, including fantastic grand prizes of gift certificates, tickets and more, to be won by readers of all ages.