By the way ... pt. 1

• To answer a couple of questions, I found the keys the next day in my bag that I intentionally left at the office. No, it was never worth getting upset. By that point, it was out of my hands. Some days are like that.
• If you haven't done it yet, celebrate the 20th anniversary of Bull Durham (June 15, 1988). Drink a beer. Grow fungus in your shower shoes. Dance with a clown. Or just go to espn The Magazine. I linked to the first page, an interview with Ron Shelton. Day 2 is Tim Robbins and Day 3 (today) is Kevin Costner. I was three weeks out of college, had two weeks as a fulltime sportswriter under my (garter) belt. Annie Savoy was -- and still is -- inspiring. There were at least a half-dozen times this youth baseball season I was telling my daughter "Don't think, just pitch." (She would have thought I was nuts if I told her she was breathing out of the wrong eyelid). And at the batting cages on Friday, I wasn't pulling my hips out, but I was turning my hands over.
• Crash's answer to Annie's question "Well what DO you believe?" is still my favorite movie line(s), but "I Believe in the Church of Baseball" is right up there. In part because I can still remember the first time I went to Fenway Park -- walking up the ramp into the bleachers at twilight carrying the book (Sartre) I had to study for the next day's French 201 final. You exit that dingy walkway and the field just bursts into view, green and bright and beautiful. A true church of baseball.
• Finally, not everything I write will touch on Bull Durham. Honest. I just wanted to get something up tonight, meet my goal of posting at least once a week and hey, an anniversary's an anniversary. Check back soon.

-Michelle