If You Hold It, They Will Come

It goes without mentioning that Tuesday January 20th 2009 is a day that will mark the passing of time for generations to come. The storming of the beaches at Normandy, the JFK assassination, the moon landing, and now January 20th 2009 will live in infamy thanks to the Milwaukee Brewers’ signing of Seth McClung to a 1 year contract and thus avoiding salary arbitration. Captain Fantastic, for one, is just glad he lived to see this day.

With that bit of housekeeping out of the way, I’d like to officially announce my return to the Just A Bit Outside community. Thanks to Chuckie O and KP for manning the battle stations in my absence. As most of you are aware I recently traveled down to Mexico to host the 1st Annual Captain Fantastic Baseball Bloggers and Hard Rock Café Memorabilia Collectors of Greater Milwaukee Colloquium (CFBBHRCMCGMC for short) sponsored by Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail. Met on arrival by a strange language and the sobering knowledge that I was the only registered guest for the colloquium I set off to find some local ‘amigos’ and hold the festivities anyway. While I won’t bore you with the details, I will mention that we held our own Hall of Fame vote in honor of the selections of Ricky Henderson and Jim Rice by the BBWAA. The votes yielded an unanimous selection of Mexico’s favorite son Vinny Castilla and a 62.7% tally for Bert Blyleven. Mis amigos and I also had the privilege of watching former Brewers reliever Julian Tavarez being lit up for 5 ER’s in 2 IP in a Dominican Republic baseball league game. Say what you will, but I have confidence history will look fondly upon that Doug Melvin signing.

While it was sad to see my new friends leave the padlocked warehouse I kept them in for the entirety of the 7 day convention, somehow I knew, without having to look at my Spanish to English Dictionary, that their angry shouts and tears were their way of saying ‘thank you Captain Fantastic; you changed our lives’. Though the memories will fade, my doctor tells me the newly discovered diseases I contracted on the trip (now known only as Captain Fantastic Diseases #1,#2, #3, and #7) will be with me for the rest of my life.