John Ray Grisham Jr. is an American novelist, attorney and activist, best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been published worldwide. Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University and received a J. D. degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He practiced criminal law for about a decade and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from January 1984 to September 1990, his first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in June 1989. As of 2012, his books had sold over 275 million copies worldwide. A Galaxy British Book Awards winner, Grisham is one of only three authors to sell two million copies on a first printing, the other two being Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling. Grisham's first bestseller, The Firm, sold more than seven million copies; the book was adapted into a 1993 feature film of the same name, starring Tom Cruise, a 2012 TV series which continues the story ten years after the events of the film and novel. Eight of his other novels have been adapted into films: The Chamber, The Client, A Painted House, The Pelican Brief, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, Skipping Christmas, A Time to Kill.

Grisham's latest book, The Guardians, explores the story of Cullen Post, a defense attorney and Episcopal priest, who works to overturn a wrongful conviction. Grisham, the second of five siblings, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Wanda and John Ray Grisham, his father worked as a construction worker and a cotton farmer, his mother was a homemaker. When Grisham was four years old, his family settled in Mississippi; as a child, he wanted to be a baseball player. In A Painted House, a novel with strong autobiographical elements, the protagonist - a seven-year old farmer boy - manifests a strong wish to become a baseball player; as noted in the foreword to Calico Joe, Grisham gave up playing baseball at the age of 18, after a game in which a hostile pitcher aimed a beanball at him, narrowly missed doing the young Grisham grave harm. Grisham has been a Christian since he was eight years old, has described his conversion to Christianity as "the most important event" in his life. After leaving law school, he participated in some missionary work in Brazil, under the First Baptist Church of Oxford.

Although Grisham's parents lacked formal education, his mother encouraged him to read and prepare for college. He drew on his childhood experiences for his novel A Painted House. Grisham started watering bushes for $1.00 an hour. He was soon promoted to a fence crew for $1.50 an hour. He wrote about the job: "there was no future in it". At 16, Grisham took a job with a plumbing contractor but says he "never drew inspiration from that miserable work". Through one of his father's contacts, he managed to find work on a highway asphalt crew in Mississippi at age 17, it was during this time. A fight with gunfire broke out among the crew causing Grisham to run to a nearby restroom to find safety, he did not come out. He started thinking about college, his next work was in retail, as a salesclerk in a department store men's underwear section, which he described as "humiliating". By this time, Grisham was halfway through college. Planning to become a tax lawyer, he was soon overcome by "the lunacy" of it, he decided to return to his hometown as a trial lawyer.

He attended the Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia and attended Delta State University in Cleveland. Grisham drifted so much, he graduated from Mississippi State University in 1977, receiving a B. S. degree in accounting. He enrolled in the University of Mississippi School of Law to become a tax lawyer, but his interest shifted to general civil litigation, he graduated in 1981 with a J. D. degree. Grisham practiced law for about a decade and won election as a Democrat to the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1984 to 1990, at an annual salary of $8,000. Grisham represented the seventh district. By his second term in the Mississippi state legislature, he was the vice-chairman of the Apportionment and Elections Committee and a member of several other committees. Grisham's writing career blossomed with the success of his second book, The Firm, he gave up practicing law, except for returning in 1996 to fight for the family of a railroad worker, killed on the job, his official website states: "He was honoring a commitment made before he had retired from the law to become a full-time writer.

Grisham argued his clients' case, earning them a jury award of $683,500 — the biggest verdict of his career." Grisham said the big case came in 1984. As he was hanging around the court, he overheard a 12-year-old girl telling the jury what had happened to her, her story intrigued Grisham, he began watching the trial. He saw how the members of the jury cried as she told them about having been beaten, it was Grisham wrote in The New York Times, that a story was born. Musing over "what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants", took three years to complete his first book, A Time to Kill. Finding a publisher was not easy; the book was rejected by 28 publishers before Wynwood Press, an unknown publisher, agreed to give it a modest 5,000-copy printing. It was published in June 1989; the day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on The Firm. The Firm remained on

Zlatko Baloković was a Croatian violinist. He was born in Zagreb and began violin lessons at age ten, he made such progress that, after three years, he was sent to Prague to continue his studies at the "Meisterschule" under the guidance of Otakar Ševčík. In 1913 excellent and renowned, the invitation came to him to play with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra; that year he won the annual Austrian "Staatspreis" and soon made artistic tours to Berlin and Genova. He stayed in Trieste during World War I. After living in Britain from 1920 to 1923, he accepted an offer for an American tour, so on January 1, 1924, he left for New York City. In the same year, he settled permanently in the United States. In 1926, he married heiress to the Borden family fortune. In the 1920s and 1930s, the couple toured the European continent, performing predominantly for the continent's royalty. Upon the outbreak of World War II, he settled at Hillside Farm in Camden, where he became involved in many wartime political efforts and chaired six organizations: the Yugoslav Division of the U.

S. Treasury War Bond Drives, he advocated Tito's Yugoslav cause. In November 1944, aided by Adlai Stevenson, he went to Washington, D. C. to demand the shipment of medical supplies to the resistance forces. After seeing President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Vice President Henry A. Wallace, United States Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, Jr. Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy and Admiral Land, the deal was done and the requested supplies soon reached their destination. In 1946 the couple returned to Yugoslavia as officials of the American Committee for Yugoslav Relief and were showered with that nation's gratitude, he gave 36 concerts and hundreds of speeches, while travelling the entire country in a private railroad car. He came to know many high-ranking figures in the Yugoslav government, including Marshal Josip Broz Tito, Georgi Dimitrov of Bulgaria, Enver Hoxha of Albania. Upon his return to the U. S. in 1947, he made a coast-to-coast tour to advocate for the people. As a result of the ties to Yugoslav government and membership in wartime organizations, he had come to be considered "subversive".

The couple was labelled as "fellow travellers" by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1949 but after an ordeal both were cleared. In 1954, he made a second "jubilee" tour. Tito presented him with the Grand Cross of the Yugoslav Flag in recognition of his artistic and humanitarian achievements benefiting nations, he died in Venice on his way to Zagreb to celebration of his 70th birthday. Baloković's 1735 "The King" Guarneri violin is kept at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb. Media related to Zlatko Baloković at Wikimedia Commons

The Winter Haven Red Sox were a minor league baseball team in the Florida State League, based in Winter Haven, from 1969–1992. The franchise began in 1966 in Deerfield Beach, Florida, as the Deerfield Beach Sun Sox, a Class-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. However, on June 27, 1966, the team moved to Winter Haven becoming the Winter Haven Sun Sox, it was the city's first entry in Organized Baseball since the 1919 Bartow Polkers played part of their home schedule in Winter Haven. The Sun Sox had a 55 -- 83 record overall. In 1967, the Sun Sox were renamed the Winter Haven Mets after their new parent club, the New York Mets; the Mets posted a stellar 94–46 record, but were defeated by the St. Petersburg Cardinals for the western division title by two and a half games. Nolan Ryan 20, pitched for the 1967 team, appearing in one game as a starting pitcher and allowing one hit and one earned run in four innings pitched, with five strikeouts, it was Ryan's last year in the minors. The Mets left Winter Haven after only a single season the franchise lay dormant during 1968.

In 1969, the Boston Red Sox, who had established their spring training home in Winter Haven in 1966, took over the Florida State League franchise. The Winter Haven Red Sox played for the next 24 consecutive seasons. In 1983, 16 years after Ryan's one-game stint, Roger Clemens began his pro career with Winter Haven, winning three of four decisions in four starts, striking out 36 in 29 innings pitched; the Winter Haven Red Sox folded after the 1992 season, after 27 years, the parent Red Sox moved their spring headquarters to Fort Myers and their FSL affiliate to Fort Lauderdale. Although the Cleveland Indians replaced the Red Sox as Winter Haven's spring training tenants from 1993 through 2008, they never revived an FSL franchise for the city; the team played home games at Chain of Lakes Park, located at 500 Cletus Allen Drive. The park still exists as part of the Chain of Lakes Sports Complex