Spade_Cooley

Furthest back Capocannoniere (Serie A top scorers) still living are now: Gino Pivatelli (1956, Bologna) Dino da Costa (1957, Roma)* Sergio Brighenti (1961, Sampdoria)* José Altafini (1962, Milan) Pedro Manfredini (1963, Roma)* Asterisked players never made it to a World Cup.

He would (should) have played in the 58 World Cup for Argentina, but the country had a strict "no overseas players in the national team" policy at the time. Same reason Omar Sivori didn't play in 58, although he did get the Italy call-up in 62. Sun came through with a QO, interestingly enough.

Antonio Valentín Angelillo dead at 80. Played international football for both Argentina and Italy, but didn't make the World Cup for either. Serie A top scorer in 1959 and later went on to manage the Moroccan national team.

Didn't I mention that JVD wasn't doing too well here last year at some point? Heard some old showbiz-type interview where they said "yeah, Jerry's not doing too good right now".

Happy 80th birthday Adriano!

Always forget cinema enthusiast Gerald Sinstadt isn't dead. Anyway, he's alive and well enough to maintain an active Goodreads profile.

The greatest ever ten-pin bowler, Don Carter, struck out today in 2012. His 1964 contract with Ebonite is believed to be the first million-dollar endorsement deal ever signed by a professional athlete.

Turner in her grave

Still a smaller age gap than Connery and Zeta Jones in Entrapment. What a hunk of shit that was.

My god look at that guy's hairline. Clearly a hit last year.

Wipe that tear from your eye, everyone's favourite fake Native American Iron Eyes Cody left the reservation today in 1999:

Fuck it, might as well keep my hand in and enter the cup.

Deadest person entered, as far as I can ascertain, was Barry White, who's been dead a mere 15 years.

God knows what I'm going to do when Glynis and Kamala cark it, I'll have nobody left to bang the gong for around here. Leslie Phillips ended up high on my list mainly because of my mother going "Leslie Phillips is still alive? Really?" during a Christmas dinner conversation.

Was also the last manager Gretna had before the Brooks Mileson era fwiw.

"You've got four words left" "Hat for sale, £15"

Denis Norden to see if those rumours about him being a massive porn connoisseur are true.

One of my favourite "what the fuck" facts, which this reminded me of: Toni Basil is only six years younger than Jim Bowen.

This has been noted and it is something I may well seek to curb in future years. A good rule is we should stop any attempt at gamesmanship before someone starts gaming it, hence the cut back on death announcements as a valid obit source (although if you're prepared to spend £80 a pop getting an obit in the Times, you could just bribe me as gamerunner to let you win).

Am hoping to have the big 50 for you sometime in the second week of January. Stay tuned...

Ali Kadhim, former top scorer for the Iraqi national team, dead at 69. His nephew is one-time prospect and current Udinese benchwarmer Ali Adnan Kadhim.

Apparently it was pretty popular, although in La Bella Paese it was called "The Apple Tree":

Peppino Mazzullo a great call-up from an Italian standpoint. Weird that this is already Charlotte Rae's fifth year on their list though: was Facts of Life big in Italy or something?

Goddamn it's hard being the only xennial on this forum.