Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into Pennsylvania Read Online Free PDF Page A

freshman, so the two likely had very little interaction. But Mr. October was a classmate of Netanyahu’s older brother, Yonatan. (Other Cheltenham Township High School alumni: poet Ezra Pound and comedian Bill Cosby.)
4. He attended Arizona State University on a football scholarship.
    Jackson was a phenomenal halfback on Cheltenham’s football team. His combination of speed and power attracted plenty of college scouts, and he eventually accepted a scholarship to play football at Arizona State University. But the team wasn’t a good fit, and when coach Frank Kush tried to convert him into a defensive back after his freshman season, Jackson decided to quit and play baseball instead.
    That proved to be a good decision. Jackson soon became the first college player to hit a ball out of Phoenix Municipal Stadium, the team’s home field, and by 1966, he was named College Player of the Year by the Sporting News . Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie Finley was so impressed with Jack-son’s exploits that he selected him second overall in the 1966 Major League Baseball amateur draft and offered him a $95,000 signing bonus. Jackson accepted the offer and left college to go pro.
5. He gave rapper MC Hammer his nickname.
    A youth named Stanley Burrell worked as a batboy for the Oakland Athletics from 1972 until 1980 and was around during Jackson’s tenure with the team. On meeting Burrell, Jackson mentioned that the boy bore a striking resemblance to Hall of Fame outfielder “Hammerin’” Hank Aaron, and Jackson began addressing the youngster as “Hammer” for short. The nickname stuck, and Burrell combined it with MC (Master of Ceremonies) later when he began performing at local clubs and bars around San Francisco.
Career Stats
    â€¢Jackson played for 21 seasons with four major league teams: the Kansas City/Oakland Athletics (1967–75 and 1987), the Baltimore Orioles (1976), the New York Yankees (1977–81), and the California Angels (1982–86).
    â€¢He batted .262, hit 563 homeruns, and drove in 1,702 runs.
    â€¢He was a 14-time All-Star (1969, 1971–75, 1977–84).
    â€¢He was the American League Most Valuable Player in 1973, and he led the American League in home runs four times (1973, 1975, 1980, 1982).
    â€¢He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993.
    â€¢He holds the record for most career strikeouts with 2,597 (a dubious achievement, but his only career record).
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Rocky Road
    Yo, Adrian! Here are some facts about the most famous movie ever to be set in Philadelphia .
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    â€¢Sylvester Stallone wrote his first draft of Rocky in three days, though he rewrote it substantially before production. The original ending: during the climactic fight, Rocky decides he hates boxing, throws the fight, and quits the sport forever.
    â€¢Stallone’s inspiration for the movie: a New Jersey boxer named Chuck Wepner who fought his way up through the lower rungs of boxing in the 1960s and 1970s to earn a title fight against Muhammad Ali in 1975. Wepner ultimately lost after 15 bloody rounds, but his gutsy performance brought him national attention.
    â€¢Producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, working with the United Artists studio, offered Stallone $350,000 for the rights to produce Rocky . But Stallone wouldn’t sign off unless he got to star in it, too. The compromise: Stallone would take the $350,000, provide rewrites through production, and accept “scale”—minimum wage—for acting: $350 a week.
    â€¢United Artists gave Winkler and Chartoff $2 million to make the film so they’d have enough money to hire a big star. When they learned that Stallone (who wasn’t a big star at the time) would play the lead, they cut the budget in half.
    â€¢The role of Rocky’s coach Mickey was played by Burgess Meredith (best known as the Penguin on TV’s Batman ). But Stallone wrote it for Lee J. Cobb, who turned it