Much to our surprise, Julie and I have become baseball fans since we moved to the “Seattle area” after college. An exciting 1995 season got the ball rolling, and the 116-win 2001 season was great fun. However, the team-that-must-not-be-named hasn't been doing as well the last couple of years, and they're doing really badly this year, currently last in their division and having among the worst records in the Major Leagues. So, baseball isn't as much fun this year. I'm a fair weather fan, you might say, and there's storm clouds as far as the eye can see.

Of course, they say that every cloud has a silver lining, and I find mine in the great performance of Dan Wilson, my favorite baseball player. He's been a great catcher in Seattle for ten years, has a great attitude, and I've always had a liking for him that I don't fully understand. He's rarely had great stats compared to the other players on the team, but so far this year he's leading the team in batting average and runs batted in, and it's been fun to watch – when I can bring myself to pay any attention to the games at all...