So, I learned of two more job possibilities on Friday afternoon, and I've got tangential connections to both.

Option One: GM of the team used to work for my former boss.

Option Two: One of my better friends in the league used to work for the club, although under a different GM. So that's not much help. However, one of my less-tight friends in the league used to work for the new GM, in a different locale.

Pretty incredible. Is it? Maybe not, however.

[The use of the word "option" is misleading. I've not even contacted them yet. These "options" won't even get mail from me until at least Wednesday. Or Thursday.]

Then, my dad mentioned to me a Sports Illustrated article referencing the minor league Lowell (Mass.) Spinners, who have offered little league teams the chance to change their name from the Yankees to the Spinners for free. My dad, and I, both thought it was a pretty funny article, to which I said, "Yeah, the GM they probably quoted used to work for my former boss."

It really is an incestuous, odd little "industry." I should mention that both "Option" teams are West Coast, I'm, of course, Midwest-based, and the Spinners are in Massachusetts. Further, less-tight friend worked for Option Two's GM in the South, and tighter-friend went from Midwest to three years West back to the Midwest. And there's got to be a Northwest connection here, or a Southeast one, but I don't know for sure.

I guess everybody's just committed to the "dream," and they go wherever they find an opening and a sucker willing to hire them. And I guess most fields are like that, it just seems that MiLB is ridiculous for the fact that nobody gets paid. At all. Really.

Also interesting is that my former boss is the former boss of three of the 145 [or so] general managers in for-profit minor league baseball. Must be his outstanding business-sense and ability to train future leaders of the world. Must be it. Totally.

- - - - - - - - - -

So, Monday starts Week Five at my two-week job, a boon for cashflow, it has been. I'm coming up on job completion and, presumably, that will mean the end of my term there. [I'll owe the company ten bucks, because I managed to lose my I.D. Card about two weeks ago. Ridiculous.] At that point, I'll likely spend the next three or four weeks fully-committed to finding another baseball gig. [I've, of course, been fully-committed to finding a new gig since late November, when I psychologically settled on "Getting the hell out," but I think the end of this week becomes truly fully-committed time.]

I've got three prospects for which there is legitimate interest in my services, and these two other ones for which the teams will have to move quickly. That is, in those cases, my single "in" and my dual "ins" will help me out moreso than had the positions come open in October. A connection or a name or a phone call from somebody else, I've got to think, will help me "move to the top of the stack." In the case of the three already-interested clubs, experience and nice phone conversations brought about the interest.

Of course, you never get optimistic. Never. Because, still, chances are it's not going to happen. And, in that case, you deal. Just deal, punk.

And if nothing happens by the middle of April, maybe I'll just spend the spring and summer watching the Cubs. That'll go over real well.

- - - - - - - - - - -

I sleepwalked [slept-walked?] for the first time of my life on Friday morning / Thursday night. I woke up, standing, and badly needing to use the restroom, and started walking into a wall. It was tough to handle. I really, really had to pee. And I was convinced that I was in a completely different part of the house. [This never happened in my one-bedroom apartment.] So I felt the "gap" in the wall, figured it was the doorway, and POW. Face on wall. It hurt, a bit. So, now I'm scared, thinking I'll just pee all over the floor. And I start flailing my right arm around wildly (left arm still against the wall), and I whack one of the beams on the Rud family foosball table. And I know I'm still in the basement, not more than 12 feet from where I was sleeping. So I flip on the light, look to my left, locate the restroom, and work my magic. Incredible.

This drama probably took all of 9 seconds, but, if you can imagine really needing to pee, you can imagine that it felt like longer than that. Like, maybe 4 minutes.

Any sleep walking stories you'd like to share are appreciated.

- - - - - - - -

Northwestern hung with a great Ohio State team on Saturday, but the loss left me disappointed. This was an opportunity for a big win, and they let it slip through. I don't buy Thad Matta's "We didn't play well" story, nor the awful AP account. I think Northwestern's 1-3-1 mucked up the works, that the Buckeyes couldn't handle it. If the shots had been falling or had Vedran Vukusic gotten a call all morning, NU could have taken it. Make no mistake, the reason Ohio State struggled is because Bill Carmody's a genius. There's not a better in-game coach in the country, and I'm confident that the Cats have an NCAA run in them in the next three years. And, yes, that's all we can hope for right now.

I think Thursday night against Wisconsin is a great chance for a great win for the Cats. Sadly, this precludes another trivia victory for the Youth and Beauty Brigade, which is too bad.