help treem fight cancer here if you have the time/15 bucks to spare.

we like treem, and he's accomplished a lot in his young life. down with cancer, up with not cancer indeed.

- - - - - - - - -

i had a great, great night on wednesday at the yard. got to meet a guy now in triple-a who also has the sickness. he was scheduled to be at the iowa cubs on thursday but, triple-a travel being what it is (oddly-timed commercial flights with multiple connections), he wanted to come to the state on his off day; it's more leisurely to fly at 10 a.m. on the off day than to leave at 4:30 a.m., connect once, cab to the ballpark, and be on the air until 10.

so being that he has the sickness, he came to our game.

i'm generally scheduled to let ben the intern do the middle three innings, during which i'm on color. on wednesday night, however, the opposing broadcaster (one of my favorite people in the league, and in the world) was taking the night off (a coworker had come up to try to get the club out of a slump, or something) and we had our triple-a visitor in town, and i got into conversation with both. and we talked, for innings and innings. about people that had been through the league. travel horror stories. tales of awful-to-deal-with managers, and of the absurdly large bank accounts that players tend to have.

it was really fascinating...a upper-40's guy (opposing), a mid-30's guy, and a mid-20's guy (me) just shooting the breeze. similar experiences, different perspectives. as interesting as a conversation among three upper-middle-class college-educated white dudes watching baseball for a living can be, i guess.

the highlight comes, of course, at the end of the night. triple-a guy says nice things, then gives me his phone numbers (XXX-XXX-XXXX: cell, and XXX-XXX-XXXX: cell - who doesn't love the 21st century?) and an email address, with instructions to 'call me if you ever need anything,' and really means it. a lot of nice people in the business, it seems. supportive, at least when you're not competing with them for a job.

and the bigger highlight comes, of course, the next day. i've received several email photographs, some of the stadium, some of triple-a and the stadium, and one of triple-a and darth vader (star wars night on wednesday, for obvious reasons.)

- - - - - - - - - - -

opponent broadcaster guy interviewed triple-a guy for his pregame show, and i caught one question and answer:
"i think what a lot of people respect about you is that you haven't traded on your (famous broadcaster dad)'s name to get a major league job. what is it about the minor leagues that makes you so excited?"
"i'm not gonna lie to you. if someone had offered a major league job, i'd've taken it."

that's all.