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Let me tell you a story about sports. Tuesday evening, my friend Dan got up at the end of the sixth inning to go home. Home is in Rochester, and he was in the Cities; he had 90 minutes of driving in front of him. The rest of us said, "You can't leave now! Liriano's throwing a no-hitter and you'll jinx it!"
Dan had spent most of the previous week in the car. He'd driven to Chicago from Rochester for a multi-day class, driven back home for one night there, then wheeled up to Brainerd for three days. He was on his way home, finally, and had stopped for dinner with three of us Twin Cities dwellers. Dan has a wife and an almost-five-month-old at home. He is finishing up his residency in orthotics and prosthetics. He has his final certifications in a month. I have known Dan almost literally my entire life, and I don't think I've ever seen him look as exhausted as he did Tuesday night at dinner. When we told him he couldn't leave, implying that the actions of four guys in Roseville could possibly affect in any way a baseball game in Chicago, logic would have dictated that he punch each of us in the face.
But sports aren't about logic. Dan sat down and stayed through the end. Of course he did. And that - that, somehow, is what fandom is about.
On with a few Saturday links:
*We start this week with a Will Leitch-penned column on Bud Selig that I just thought was wonderful. Short version: for as goofy as Bud is, he's still probably the best commissioner in the major sports.
