It will include:
Book reviews - like I'll stop reading. Please.
Weekly media mix - I'm having fun with it and will keep up with it.
It will likely not include:
Baseball cards - My success rate with through the mail autographs is uninspiring to me so I may put the Group of 79(80) project on hold. None of the baseball sets strike me as something I want to spend money on, even if I had money to spend. I'm done with the NASCAR cards. It just isn't of interest to me right now. I had got up to six card blogs I was reading semi-regularly but now I'm back to just Cardboard Junkie and Thorzul Will Rule.
It will probably include:
My new potential favorite player - One of the things I've wanted to do is find a new player and team to root for. I've never been a diehard devotee of any team and as much as I like Adam Dunn, I've never liked him on the level I liked Dave Righetti.
Why do I want a player to root for? It's fun. It would be cool to start another collection similar to that I had of Righetti's cards. The more I thought about it the more I decided I wanted to root for someone just starting out. We just had the major league draft and there's a whole flock of players who are starting out in pro ball.
On Tuesday I was thinking about it some more. There were 1,521 players drafted. How to narrow it down? First there was the card/money issue. I can find Stephen Strasburg cards on eBay for $500. That ain't going to happen. Second there is the anti-bandwagon issue. I like to think of myself as a bit of a contrarian. As awesome as Strasburg is, who isn't excited about him, even if he is a National? When I was in high school I started fan clubs for Steve Lake and Chuck McElroy. Give me unheralded any day.
Third is the character issue. One of the great things about being a fan of Dave Righetti was/is the man was not going to let you down. Probably the worst behavior Rags ever showed was hurling a ball over the outfield fence at Skydome. He had surrendered a homer, he got the new ball, turned and hurled it in anger. As hard as it seems to be, I'd like to root for a good ballplayer and a good human being.
Fourth is the skill-set issue. I love pitchers but it is much more fun to be able to check a boxscore everyday and know your favorite player is going to be in it. No need to wait until his turn in the rotation comes up or wondering if there might be a save situation or how many days in a row he's pitched already.
Deciding I want to root for a position player, I decided he had to be the kind of player I admire. Speed. Defense.
That narrowed it down quite a bit. How to go about weeding such players out of the draft, though? Good fortune befell me in the form of an interview with the Milwaukee Brewers' third round pick, Josh Prince. Prince seems like just the kind of player I'm looking for. No contract haggling, concerned about playing in front of his family, extremely fast, proud of his defense.
So I'm thinking I might do something with Josh Prince here. He made his professional debut on Tuesday. Reached first on an error, stole second and scored the Brewers first run of the season in his first plate appearance. Later drew a walk but finished the night 0 for 5 with a pair of strikeouts. In the field he a put out and four assists.
Photo courtesy ESPN.com.
Beyond that, we'll see what strikes my fancy.
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