A little piece of nice

My friend bryduck is a Reds fan. The Reds have never done much for me, but I always like liking the teams that my friends like, except when I have friends who like the Yankees. It's a motto to live by. You should probably write it down.

Actually liking the Yankees could be a deal breaker for me now, but when I went to college, there were too many people from the New York area who liked the Yankees to discriminate on that level.

I'm boring in that I like the teams that are from places I've lived (or nearby). So I like the Braves and the Angels best in baseball, but can stomach Orioles and even like thinking about how much more I would have liked living in D.C. had the Nats been there then. I also like UCLA basketball and if you're going to make me pick a NFL team, I'll pick the Falcons. I've lived in Atlanta, D.C. and L.A. See? Boring.

But the Reds? Not so much. But then this year I "invested" in a fantasy baseball league and I now have a new favorite pitcher. And he's a Red. I'm following him with a passion. I drafted him for 10 cents. So far he's won both games he's started and has a 1.98 ERA. He also has hit two home runs including one today out of Wrigley onto Waveland Avenue. He had never hit a home run in his major league career before these two games. And he has a lot of hair and a funky guy goatee and this fantastic straight high leg kick. And a great name: Bronson Arroyo. It sounds both geeky and geological.

Now, I'm sure that there are people in the world to whom Bronson Arroyo matters not at all. And I'm sure there are dedicated fans. He put out a CD. Check out Amazon if you want.

Truth be told, I don't really care about all of that. The thing is that for the last ten days, Mr. Arroyo has made me happy twice.




And, that's what's great about baseball. To paraphrase what Doris Kearns Goodwin said in her lovely way, what's great about baseball is that it's there when you need it. I really like that this year in addition to watching the Angels and Braves when I can, I can enjoy a guy I never thought about before. Because sometimes I really need a little piece of nice that's not complicated by anything else.