Video games? Huh? Wait a second, are you taunting me? You know I don’t do that stuff. :-*

An unrelated thing, I never ever would have guessed that you play video games.

Oh boy, yeah, those gas-charged pipe-bombs. No way I’d go for that. Everyone knows that real men get woodies. Rick Wolff, a pretty well-known national authority on youth sports, wants metal bats banned from amateur baseball.

We actually had someone get bat-ka-bobbed here about 7 or 8 years ago. He was carted to the waiting ambulance with his elbow bent at a 90-degree angle, the wood sticking out of his forearm. It was, as Hari puts it, “gruesome.”

I guess the bottom line for me is, I know what I don’t want—netting around the field. I could probably live with maple splinters. Heck, I’m usually the first to yell, “Head’s up!!!” on foul tips into the stands.

Not to mention I was wacko enough to try and stop the afore-mentioned windmilling C-271. I caught the barrel with my hand but missed the knob, which clonked me in the forehead. No stars, but it did leave a bit of a bump. Maybe I should start wearing a helmet like the base coaches.

The Commissioner meddling? You mean like calling a tie at an All-Star game? No! He wouldn’t do something like that, would he? That’s why I stay out here in the bushes!

Hari: It was an intact bat I half-caught/half-knocked down as it came into our packed section about 4 or 5 years ago. The spinning bats are easier to judge (plus you don’t worry so much about severing arteries and puncturing eyeballs). I did get conked hard in the hand and lightly on the forehead for my efforts. It’s tough when bats come flying into the seats–I mean, where are you going to go?

Andrew: I’m hoping this site will be accessible to a wide range of readers. As mentioned in my maiden post–I’m a really lousy scorekeeper. The idea of baseball stories without stats will be considered quirky, no doubt, to some. Nonetheless, the idea is to provide some entertaining (and ocassionally thought-provoking) reads for the majority of visitors.

You’ll have to talk about your bat shrapnel experience sometime. I’m picturing you at the doctor having a foot-long piece of wood removed from your forehead. Okay, maybe that’s gruesome, but I have an odd sense of humor.