Hi everyone! I have some exciting news for all of you book-lovers out there. If you are looking for early Christmas presents, such as, oh, I don’t know, my latest book, The Washington Capitals, the Kansas City Scouts, and the Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Cup, 1975-76, or maybe some other excellent non-fiction work like Cold War on Ice about the 1976 NHL Super Series, The Life and Times of Johnny F. Bassett, about the legendary owner of the Toronto Toros, Birmingham Bulls, and Tampa Bay Bandits, or The NHL’s Mistake by the Lake, a great book about the history of the Cleveland Barons, McFarland Press is offering a 40% discount on all of its titles. You read that right, folks, but don’t let me steal any of McFarland’s thunder. Here is their pitch:

The holidays are almost here, and Black Friday…well…okay, look, we value our readers too much to make them wait until the day after Thanksgiving to get The Good Deals. You deserve nice things, and so do your friends and family this holiday season! That’s why we’re again offering a special, early access to our annual holiday sale as our way of thanking our customers for supporting our authors this year, and every year. Through Cyber Monday, November 27, get 40% off ALL titles with coupon code HOLIDAY23! Don’t delay, because when early access ends, the discount will drop to the standard 25%. If you’d like to help share the word, please do! You’ll find sharable social media posts pinned to the tops of our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles, and the main landing page is here: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/holiday23/

As for this week’s Seals article, I found an interesting one from Oct 1974. Last time we dove into the 1974-75 pre-season we looked at the ill-fated experimental “free shot” rule. This week, we go back to the pre-season, but we will focus on what the Seals were doing behind the scenes. In this Santa Rosa Press Democrat article, writer George Hower describes an East-West game the Seals held to determine which players were going to stay in Oakland, and which ones would be heading to Salt Lake City. What was interesting about his scrimmage is that a slightly nervous Charles “Sparky” Schulz (of Peanuts fame, of course), was the referee! You can find out here who stood out during the game, and which side claimed victory.

Until next time, stay gold!