May 2007 Archives

In June 2006 the Arizona Diamondbacks under the direction of Mike Rizzo selected Max Scherzer with the eleventh overall pick in the annual amateur draft. This began an 11 month roller coaster ride as the team attempted to negotiate with Scherzer’s agent the infamous Scott Boras. Max Scherzer who was the 2005 Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Year was a talent that was not supposed to last in the draft. Signability concerns coupled with a couple of injuries left the right handed pitcher on the board when it was time for the Diamondbacks selection. Arizona has had a philosophy of selecting the best available talent regardless of how difficult it may be to negotiate a contract. Scott Boras had notified teams of contract expectations and it appears as though Rizzo and Boras were aligned. The problems began shortly afterwards when negotiations passed from Rizzo to Diamondbacks general manager Josh Byrnes after Rizzo left the organization to accept a position with the Washington Nationals. Contract talks stalled shortly thereafter and the sides appeared deadlocked. During this time Scherzer became the only first round draft pick unsigned from the 2006 draft class. Facing a 9 PM May deadline it did not look as if the Diamondbacks and Boras could reach an agreement. If the deadline passed, Max Scherzer would re-enter next week’s draft.

As the Arizona Diamondbacks prepared to leave the friendly confines of Chase Field with their 4-game sweep of the struggling Houston Astros my exuberance for the victory was tempered by the fact that the schedule for the next couple of weeks did not look to favor the team. They would be making their northeastern swing meaning 3 games with the suddenly hot Philadelphia Phillies followed by a 3 game set with the National League East leading New York Mets. This coupled with an upcoming home stand with the rival San Francisco Giants and an inter-league series with the Boston Red Sox could mean a dramatic swing in the loss column for a young team. I was holding out hope that the Diamondbacks could at least come home with a winning record on the road trip or at worst a record close to winning. Each game though it seems like my confidence and that of the teams is starting to swell. I have absolutely no logical explanation for how the Diamondbacks have been able to shift offensive gears over these past 7 games.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have now embarked on another road trip which means that another home stand has been completed. This then marks another milestone in the season and it is time for another State of the Home Stand address. Here I will look at the seven game series that began Monday May 21 and ended Sunday May 27. I’ll try to give my perspective of the team and the stadium to give a fan’s insight as the 2007 regular season continues to unfold. Without further adieu let’s talk about these seven games.

To many Americans, Memorial Day typically means an extra day off to an already shortened week-end coupled with plans for a barbeque or a trip to the beach. Oh there may be a short moment when our thoughts turn to the reason why we have today off from work but those thoughts are usually short lived and come about the time that you are busy hanging your flag from the house before setting out for a day of fun in the sun. With American troops stationed all over the globe and casualties mounting in Iraq, I think it is an important reminder of the sacrifices that have been made on our behalf.
The freedoms we enjoy every day are far from free. It takes a lot of hard work and many lives to protect what many of us take for granted. Men and women put their very existence on the line for us every day so that we have the opportunity to live in a society where it is acceptable to speak our mind or state dissenting opinions.
Those who have served our country come in many shapes and sizes and from very diverse backgrounds. From the small town farm boy in Idaho to the Major League Baseball player, soldiers have been called and have served to the best of their ability. There is a long list of immortal baseball players who were also great Americans who diligently served their country. Hall of Fame players such as Ted Williams stepped away from the prime of their careers to face the uncertainties of war. Their successful military careers meant as much or more to them than their baseball accomplishments. These are the people who should be remembered today. We all know the names of our favorite players and can recite their statistics like they are our own but how many of us know the names of those who are serving this country to keep us free and safe? So I challenge everyone to take a moment to find the name of someone who has served this country and reach out to them and thank them for their dedication and hard work. A moment of remembering their accomplishments is the least that we can do for these heroes.

You would think that after nearly 26 years of marriage that Trina would have learned that leaving me home alone (or in this case with Dakota) would be a bad idea. No good ever comes from when she does that. The last time this happened I ended up deciding that my computer was not quite good enough and needed a “minor upgrade”. By minor I mean that I kept the power cord from the old computer and replaced everything else. Trina arrived home to find a new computer sitting in the corner of the living room. Not just any new computer but rather a state-of-the-art dual core computer with over 1 terabyte of disk space and a really cool case. By really cool case I mean it was solid black with a window along the side that showed all of the cool components. The inside was lit by 5 LED fans and 4 light tubes all glowing a perfect match to Diamondbacks purple. The fans each had a custom fan guard laser cut from steel in the shape of the Diamondbacks logo. It was pretty much the coolest thing around and I was really happy with the computer; until November 8 when the computer became obsolete. Not because the processor or memory was no longer adequate but rather because the Diamondbacks changed their colors and logo. How could I possibly be expected to use a purple and teal computer in a Sedona Red, Sonoran Sand, and black society? Trina is well aware of my feelings on this which is why she made me promise not to do any “minor upgrading” of computers while she was gone. Reluctantly I agreed that I would not mess with the computers. That didn’t stop me from messing with other things though.

Its day 2 of boy’s weekend and Dakota and I are beginning to feel the effects of being without mom and sisters. Both Dakota and I had fully expected that we could survive without any problem for the week the girls were gone. After all, we had a weekend series with the Houston Astros so it was not like we were going to go hungry and have nothing to do. But Dakota made a very interesting observation; the Diamondbacks leave town after tomorrow night’s game and the girls would still not be back meaning we would have to fend for ourselves. That was not a situation that either of us were prepared to accept. It had been ok the first day or so since we had a box of Honey Comb cereal. Based on my calculations though, that box was going to run out if we continued to eat it 2 meals a day. Oh sure we had begun to ration the milk choosing to eat one bowl of cereal dry and save the milk to put on the cereal when we ate it for dinner; but I was not sure that would be enough. On the way to the ballgame we started talking and thinking maybe we needed to say a little prayer to the baseball gods for a win at the game and a solution to our problem.

Yesterday marked the last day of school for Trina and for the kids. That meant that today would mark the first day that we would hear that phrase, “I’m bored”. It was as predictable as a Jose Valverde fastball. Trina had somehow thought ahead anticipating this and had a solution for this dilemma at least for some of the kids. Trina, Whitney, and Tiffany set off this morning for a week at girl’s camp. I have no idea what types of activities go on at girl’s camp nor am I curious enough to ask. My theory is that my male brain is not capable of comprehending the finer nuances of the female of the species so any attempt to figure out what goes on at a camp full of women would probably be erroneous. For the record, the term “camp” in the context of girl’s camp is just a loose interpretation. While they did pack sleeping bags and hiking shoes it is hard to take it seriously when they have also packed curling irons, dresses, and other girl accessories. The camp has its own cook and there are showers on the premises. So for them to say they were going to be roughing it and camping was equivalent to me saying I would only be attending a few ballgames this season. Neither is really that believable. But for the first time in my married life, Dakota and I found that males were the majority in our house.

This country is based upon the ability of its citizens to select their leaders through a vote where majority rules. The definition of majority sometimes differs but the process is relatively the same. The goal of voting is to allow each and every one of us the opportunity to choose the winner and let our voices be heard. In most cases the process allows one vote per registered voter. There are entire processes and policies surrounding this concept and safeguards are put in place that will monitor adherence to that rule. In some cases though, that rule is allowed to be bent and sometimes broken. Anecdotes abound about elections that were fixed through various methods. One such method is the concept of ballot box stuffing. In this scam, people will vote for themselves but may also vote pretending to be someone they are not circumventing the one person one vote parameter. There have been stories that describe voters in Chicago that voted in city and state elections some 50 or 100 years after their death; a truly phenomenal feat and prove that indeed there is life and politics after death. But what does this have to do with baseball?

Those of you who are regular readers may have noticed a slight lull in the number of posts to this blog. There were about 5 or 6 days there where posts did not appear to be published. Please rest assured that this was not a result of some technical difficulty nor was it a matter of me not keeping up with the Arizona Diamondbacks. No this was a direct result of yet another one of those weird experiences that only I seem to be able to have. It all started a few days ago when I got up to get ready to go to work. My usual routine is to check the sports page and the Internet for any Diamondbacks news then once I am confident that I haven’t somehow missed an earth shattering story that could change the complexion of the team I’ll hit the showers. On this morning everything was just as it should be and there was no indication that it would be any different than any other day. I still checked my weight before getting in the shower and still wondered whether the scale had somehow broken during the night that would explain where the extra 2 pounds of weight had come from. I still got in the shower and had an internal debate on whether this was a shave or no shave day and ultimately would decide it probably was a shave day and then mutter the whole rest of the time about how much shaving sucks. No this was a normal routine. It wasn’t until after I got out of the shower that things got interesting.

After last night’s Carlos Quentin show where he hit 2 home runs and drove in 5 of the 6 Diamondbacks runs I was feeling pretty good about life. The home stand was started, we had a small but exciting 3 game winning streak going and we were playing the Colorado Rockies. There was not a whole lot that could go wrong, right? Whenever I ask myself that question it usually precedes some kind of disaster. I fully expected that as soon as those words came out of my mouth the roof to Chase Field would come crumbling down causing the game to be cancelled and as if that were not bad enough, not one single piece of the roof would hit Rally Sally so I would be faced with the realization that she might be invincible. But I was confident that we could overcome the forces of nature and somehow find a way to win another game from the boys in purple and black.

Usually I hate Mondays. It means I am back at work and dealing with the daily grind of my job. The kids are whining that they have to start another week of school and how unfair all of their teachers are to require them to study and take tests. This week though was slightly different. It is the last week of school for the kids which mean four days of never ending activities and yearbook parties. That much youth and adrenaline is typically frowned upon in our house but Trina stood no chance since I seemed to be leading the charge of excitement. I didn’t really care whether the kids were getting out of school or not in fact my life is slightly more painful when they are out of school than when they are in school but that was not why I was so excited.

The Diamondbacks have had their share of troubles this season offensively. This has shown itself through the fact that we’ve not even once gotten close to a Taco Bell Chalupa which is given when the team scores eight or more runs at any home game. The fans are starting to get a little frustrated with the lack of offense or maybe it is the lack of free food, I am not sure which. It’s not that the Diamondbacks are not scoring any runs; they are just scoring a few runs. It has been nearly a month since the Diamondbacks were able to put together more than a couple of runs in an inning. So when Micah Owings struggled in last night’s game and posted the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 7-1 lead it looked bleak for the hometown boys. Those fans with weak stomachs probably saw fit to turn off the television and radio rather than look at the carnage. I wanted to start to cry (that may have been a result of me kicking the television cabinet while barefoot).

On May 10 infielder was taken into custody on suspicion of domestic violence. Callaspo was taken in for questioning and missed the team flight to Houston to begin this road trip. The Diamondbacks took swift action and placed Callaspo on the restricted list until this matter was straightened out. The restricted list is a provision where a player is not available to play and is not paid while he remains on the list. A team can keep a player on the restricted list for 10 days then they need to make a decision as to his status. All eyes would be on the Arizona Diamondbacks to see how they handled this situation. With a new ownership group in place everyone was curious whether character counted as much now as it did during the Colangelo era. Players involved with off-field problems had a very short leash when Jerry was at the helm. It did not matter how big a star or what kind of draw they were to the box office. When Diamondbacks reliever Bobby Chouinard was arrested and charged with domestic violence he was given his walking papers soon after charges were formally made against him. When Phoenix Suns guard Jason Kidd was accused of domestic violence he soon found himself leaving Phoenix and heading to New Jersey. There appeared to be a zero-tolerance policy for this type of offense.

Sometimes it is hard to be a baseball fan in Phoenix Arizona and sometimes it is even harder to be a Diamondbacks fan. There are many factors that contribute to this statement many of which probably would be a good thesis for an advanced sociology or psychology degree. I don’t have a degree in either of those so having a goal to get an ADVANCED degree in one of them is probably not a realistic educational goal. So instead of basing my hypothesis with a lot of facts and research, I’ll do what probably the majority of society does. I’ll generalize and express opinion and represent it as fact. Hey I’ve read Wikipedia so I know how this works. Once I hit the publish button and this text appears on the Internet, it is irrevocable and fact. Ah the power of the Internet, you just gotta love it. So before I stray too far from my initial sentence let me get back on track. It is hard to be a baseball fan in Phoenix. There are days that it is even harder to be a Diamondbacks fan (like when Sedona Red enters the picture).

When the Diamondbacks are home, I am away and when the Diamondbacks are away, I am at home. This phrase is how my family best describes our situation during baseball season. As an avid baseball fan especially towards the Diamondbacks, that is how it should be. Trina does not necessarily agree with that last statement and it has resulted in me finding myself sleeping on the couch more times than I can remember. But from March through hopefully October that is precisely how it is at our house. When the Diamondbacks schedule is released, Trina will dutifully enter it into her daily planner so that she knows when I am available and when I am not. This has many implications.

When the Arizona Diamondbacks were awarded as a franchise on March 9, 1995 they were not alone. They were one of two franchises the other one being the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Since that moment these two organizations have been connected and probably will remain so for the their entire existence. The two teams took very different approaches to building their teams. The Devil Rays had an existing stadium, Tropicana Field, and chose to build the team using their farm system. The Diamondbacks on the other hand chose to build a team partly with young players but the majority of the team would be made up of veteran players with a 5 year plan to become a contender. This strategy paid off as the Diamondbacks reached the play-offs in just their second year and won a world championship in just their fourth season. The Devil Rays on the other hand have never had a winning record since joining the American League East ten years ago. Going on a decade of losing has been a painful process and has taken its toll on the Rays fans. As a result Tampa Bay is now in a position where they are trying to build a larger fan base.

Ever since the Diamondbacks game last August 11 I have been waiting for my car tags to expire so that I could order a new Arizona Diamondbacks license plate. The plates finally became available last month. It was a week too late for Trina’s car to be included but my car came due today. I had been eagerly awaiting the renewal notice so that I had the information necessary to order the plates. Every day I would go to the mail box hoping to find a letter from the Arizona Department of Transportation. What a strange situation. Never in a million years would I have ever imagined that I would actually look forward to my car license to expire. Still that is the situation I now found myself in. Every day I would come back from the mail box depressed to find that the renewal notice had not arrived. I was starting to get a little nervous since I knew that my tags expired today and I had not heard anything. As much as I dreaded it, it looked as though I would have to make a phone call to the Department of Motor Vehicles or worse have to go visit a DMV office.

Most people remember their college days fondly. How it was the first time they really had lived away from home and made their own decisions. Of course most of those decisions revolved around alcohol, girls, alcohol, and girls. Somewhere in the middle of that you drug yourself out of bed and into class at least enough times so that you didn’t get thrown out of school and had to go home where you just knew that you father was waiting for you to fail at college so he could put you to work as a ditch digger or some other manual laborer job. The other thing most college students have in common is the fact that they are typically dirt poor. (Is there a corollary dirt rich and exactly how much do you have to make to be classified as dirt rich?) Well the Arizona Diamondbacks feel the pain of these students and have a solution. The team has recently announced the D-backs Student Season Pass that will offer students a chance to attend Diamondbacks home games.

Mother’s Day is one of those holidays that just feels made up by Bell Telephone and the Hallmark corporations. What other possible explanation can you give for a day where you call your mom and send her a card? This is not one of those elective holidays like Martin Luther King Day or Veteran’s Day where the only people who get the day off are school children and the post office. No, if you ask any woman who has raised a child (or in our case a husband who acts like a child) this is the number one holiday for the year. It has all the importance of Yom Kippur, Easter, Christmas, and Boxing Day. Just try to blow off this holiday and see how long it takes you to be forgiven (if ever). Luckily for me I had planned ahead and done my Mother’s Day shopping so I would not be facing the wrath of Mom (which by the way is the best of all the Star Trek movies that they made). All that I was missing was a killer card to go with my killer gift. Sure, I could have taken the standard path and done what I do every year and get a card at Circle-K when I stopped to get gas but this year I wanted something special (that and I had just gotten gas so there was no reason to stop by Circle-K especially since the Diamondbacks have not recorded 12 strike outs at a home game all season meaning that I don’t have any ThirstBuster coupons and I am not happy about that at all). No I decided that the best plan of action was for me to make Trina a card.

I’ve been a little tardy in the posting of my State of the Home Stand. Part of the delay was due to the Nightmare on Buffalo Street, the Alberto Callaspo fiasco, but mostly due to the fact that Trina has had me running around like a maniac ever since the Diamondbacks left town. So I do apologize for the delay and without further adieu I bring you my state of the home stand covering the seven game series from May 3 through May 9.

News reports began surfacing last evening of an issue surrounding one of the Arizona Diamondbacks players. The Arizona Republic newspaper reported that police were summoned to the residence of infielder Alberto Callaspo on Thursday in response to a domestic violence call. Callaspo was arrested on suspicion of assault and criminal damage and booked at the Fourth Avenue jail. The initial charges are one count of assault which is a Class 1 misdemeanor and one count of criminal damage which is a Class 6 felony. Alberto Callaspo, age 24, is currently living at the Legacy Golf Resort with his wife Marianna Paola, age 22. As police arrived at the residence they found Marianny with minor injuries. Additional information has not been released as the police investigation is on-going. The Arizona Diamondbacks who were scheduled to travel to Houston Texas for a series beginning tonight against the Astros have prohibited Callaspo from traveling with the team while an internal investigation is underway by the team.

For the most part I try to look on the positive side of things and always try to find the silver lining when bad things happen. Life is too short to dwell on the negative in life. Besides in most cases it is the bad things that happen in life that are the funniest things. But there are times when life really challenges my positive outlook and today happened to be one of those times. I knew it was going to be a tough day for me when I realized that the Diamondbacks had the day off meaning there was no game either at Chase Field or on the road. Still, I could deal with that. I mean I survived a whole off season, what is one 24 hour period without Diamondbacks baseball? I mean it wasn’t like there was no baseball anywhere. If all else failed I could always watch the Red Sox or the Yankees play. What was I thinking? I may as well have just written that I have denounced all religion and have chosen to root for Satan. Next thing you know I would begin justifying the designated hitter. Quite honestly that would have been better than what I had to face today.

There is nothing like afternoon baseball. Nothing quite like the game being played in the daylight as the shadows creep across the grass and the fans sit enjoying a relaxing afternoon with a beer and suntan lotion. Granted, it is starting to heat up in Arizona so the heat is slightly warmer than the surface of the sun and the beer tends to reach boiling point if left in the cup holder in the bleachers for more than 3 innings but still there is nothing like afternoon baseball. This is especially true when your team has a 3 game winning streak going and is facing the team they have already bested the first two games to win the series. Topping it off is the fact that you have an opportunity to watch a living legend take the mound to try and find his first win of the season. Randy Johnson has gotten better in each of his starts so far and although he has not yet won a game in 2007 he has done exactly what the Diamondbacks have asked of him, he has given them a strong performance and eaten up innings. I was really looking forward to today’s game.

I get reminded nearly every day that Mother’s Day is coming this weekend. Trina does that in a very stealth like manner. She reminds me that I only have a few shopping days to get my mother something and send it to her if I want it to arrive on time. That is usually followed up with a couple of advertisements for things that I might be interested in getting. These items of course are in Trina’s size rather than my mothers but I guess she figures I am too dense to figure that part out. Each time Trina brings this up I have to gently remind her that the Diamondbacks are in town until Thursday so there really isn’t a lot I can do before then. Trina then shrugs and leaves me the advertisements just in case I want to look through them. I am of course playing this pretty cool since I already have something in mind but I don’t want to tip my Sedona Red Diamondbacks hat. My well laid plans nearly were foiled this morning when Trina began her daily reminder about Mother’s Day. In a moment of absent-mindedness I asked, “Well what do you want at the team shop in case I get to the game early tonight?” Trina closed the ads and turned to leave. “Use your imagination I guess” she said as she walked off. Wow, use my imagination that seems like a dangerous thing to say. Not wanting to disappoint her, I figured I would do just that and so started my Mother’s Day 2007 shopping experience.

I was at the ballgame the other day. I arrived early to watch batting practice and to take in some of the sights and sounds of Chase Field. It’s always great to get to the park early. You beat the crowds that tend to arrive right before first pitch. You can take your time choosing what you want to eat at the concession stands without someone behind you freaking out because they just finished the last drop of beer and they desperately need another one, and you can usually get into the door of the team shop to check out what new merchandise the team may have added from the day before. On this day it was the team shop that was the big draw for me. I was looking for the new pin of the month and anything else that might catch my eye. As I was wandering around the store I happened to find a pair of Nike branded Diamondbacks shorts. I have three pair of Diamondbacks shorts along with three shirts/jerseys that I wear as pajamas (not at the same time unless it is really cold or I am going for the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man look). My problem is that all of my pajama shorts and shirts are Diamondbacks Classic colors (purple and teal). Given this fact I decided I just had to get the new black and Sedona Red shorts. I bought them along with a pin and headed back to my seat. After the game I gathered up my personal belongings before leaving Chase Field just as the PA Announcer requested and headed home.

There are times that I look at the schedule and I wonder what in the world the Arizona Diamondbacks were thinking. Today was one of those days. The Diamondbacks complete a four game series with the New York Mets in an afternoon. These are the same New York Mets who have beaten the Diamondbacks 13 consecutive times at Bank One Ballpark/Chase Field. These are the same Mets that have rabid fans that somehow always seem to cause fights in the stands resulting in several ejections during the series. After having beaten the Arizona Diamondbacks three consecutive games already, the brooms would be out in force being swung wildly above the heads of fans dressed in blue and orange. Given this potentially volatile situation I had to wonder whose idea it was to have military appreciation day and the second annual Stitch N’ Pitch promotion fall on the same day? It just seemed like a bad idea to mix fans trained in hand-to-hand combat, obnoxious New Yorkers, and women wielding knitting needles in a confined place for 3 hours. No good could possibly come from this.

Cinco de Mayo is always a fun day to spend at the ballpark. Few young Americans understand the significance of this holiday. Lost is the fact that this battle purged the French from Mexican soil or what implications it might have had to the United States had Napoleon been successful in his conquest of Mexico. No this date has become an excuse to party and consume large amounts of Mexican cuisine and larger amounts of alcohol. And really what better place to have a margarita and a Garcia’s burrito than Chase Field?

If you go to enough games you will finally be able to see every other team in Major League Baseball at your home stadium. This was made possible by the introduction of Interleague play in 1997. It has become a set rotation as each division plays divisional foes from the opposing league. Major League Baseball has devised a plan so that the fans will ultimately see every other team over the course of five years. At first I was not a fan of Interleague play but I am starting to tolerate it. It has given me an opportunity to see players and teams I would otherwise never see. Outside of Interleague play when else would the Diamondbacks ever face their expansion mates the Tampa Bay Devil Rays? The odds of those two teams meeting in the World Series are an extreme long shot. Perhaps given the fact that the Devil Rays are the only team in Major League Baseball that the Diamondbacks have not beaten, that might be a good thing they won’t meet in the World Series. Besides being able to see every team, you are also able to see other teams’ fans and that has proven more interesting than some of the on-field action.

When I was a kid playing baseball the local chamber of commerce would give us a hand full of lapel pins that we would take to tournaments with us. When we met fellow baseball players from other cities or states we would trade these lapel pins with others. By the end of the tournament season we would have a few pins from the various teams we had played against. It was a really cool idea and one that kind of stuck with me. As I have gotten older I have continued to pick up a few pins here and there to commemorate places I have been or things I have done. When Trina and I got married she took me to Disneyland. While we were there I found a pin to commemorate that trip and added it to my collection. I soon had a small binder filled with pins that chronicled my adventures. In the year 2000 I was asked to speak at a Microsoft conference in Orlando Florida. I agreed and after spending 45 minutes discussing the future of directory services and messaging standards I had the rest of the week to hang around and attend the conference for free. There is just so much geek time that I can deal with so instead I headed over to Walt Disney World for the week. From a pin collecting standpoint that was a major mistake.

Over the course of the first 29 games of the season the Arizona Diamondbacks have played 22 of those games against National League Western Division opponents. If you take into consideration that the entire National League Western Division with the exception of the Los Angeles Dodgers are in the Cactus League for Spring Training (the Dodgers join the Cactus league in 2009), the Diamondbacks have played National League West opponents 34 times. This concentration of games against divisional opponents could breed complacency since you are going against the same players day after day. The other thing it does is bring about some interesting insight of what can be expected in the National League West for the remainder of the season.

Sunday’s game was a nightmare and I am still trying to recover from it. I am not talking about the game itself, that is the one piece that did turn out well with the Diamondbacks completing a sweep of the Giants and moving to within a half a game of first place (After the destruction of the Dodgers last night they leapfrogged onto the top of the standings). No, it was the events before the game that had me so frazzled. For some unknown reason the state of Arizona insists on doing road work on the Interstate from my house to the ballpark on weekends when the Diamondbacks are in town. Do none of these guys ever look at a schedule? I mean there are 81 days from April 1 through September 30 that they could work on the road and not have any adverse impact on the life of a baseball fan. So with leaders already announcing their intentions to seek office, I’ve made a note to myself to pay closer attention to the campaign rhetoric during the next election and to become more involved in the political process. At the next candidate debate I am going to enter a few questions just to make sure we are better informed voters.