I'm a big, big fan of the Cleveland Indians. In past years, people thought this was stranger than having blue hair. Now that they are back to stinking again, people will probably think that again. They will always be my team, though. Go Tribe! My favorite player on the Indians was Jim Thome, until he signed with the Phillies as a free-agent. I'll still root for him, but I won't be updating the web page I created for him in 1995 anymore. Not that I was very good at it over the past few years anyway. I'm still looking for my new favorite Indian. Lots of new guys to pick from now.

Back when I was a kid and the Indians stunk, my favorite player was Rick Manning, the no-hit, gold-glove centerfielder. My brother and I were standing behind the Indians dugout before a game and Rick said, "Here kid," and tossed my brother a ball. Since Rick was my favorite player, I traded a ball I got at a previous game during batting practice to my brother for that ball. At the time, I was amazed that my brother agreed to the trade, since he could have got a lot more for that ball, but when I asked him about the incident years later, he was amazed that I even traded him ball for ball and just figured I took advantage of his youth and robbed him. I wasn't a mean child, really, but growing up an Indians fan, I was well schooled in lop-sided trades. My favorite pre-one-of-the-best-teams-in-baseball Indians memory is watching Len Barker pitch a perfect game on TV (Rick Manning caught the last out) while my brother lobbied to have the channel changed to the station showing the "Dukes of Hazzard." My sister and I still do not let him live this dowm.

I'm not the only Indians fan with fond memories of that night. My friend Tom remembers the game this way. "It was a rare evening when my parents were out of the house, and my brother Jon, who is six years my senior, was drinking beer and watching the game with his friends, who were all also "old and cool." It was one of the first times my older brother let me actually sit and hang out in the same room with his friends while they were drinking, belching, watching baseball, and being men. I tell you, I was honored. And then to watch Lenny pitch a perfect game with them, I was on cloud nine! I remember watching Toby Harrah dive into the crowd to make an unbelievable catch for an out very early in the game, and we all said, "The only thing that could top that is if Barker pitches a no-hitter." Famous last words,indeed! Then, of course, there was the dramatic final fly ball caught by Rick Manning, where I only remember thinking, "Quit waving your arms you moron! You're going to drop it!" He didn't, as we both know, and the rest, as they say, is history. My only other distinct memory of the broadcast is Bruce Drennan wading through the crowd toward Barker, screaming in his inimitably deep voice, "Get off the microphone cord! Hey Lenny! Watch it, people, stay off the cord!" Poetry, I tell you."

I don't just watch baseball, I play it. I started playing again in 2002 on a women's team and I love it. Started my own team with some friends in 2003, which has now evolved into a 4-team leagye. Check out the website of our team, the Chicago Gems. We are always looking for players and donations.

I don't eat meat because I think it's gross. I heard all the ethical, environmental, health and other arguments for going vegetarian, and they are damn good, quite compelling and hell, I even agree with a lot of them, but I didn't stop until one day in July of '95 I bit into some chicken and felt as if I was eating my own arm. In late '96, I eliminated eggs and dairy from my diet, because I decided that they, too, are gross, although I didn't have any revelations about eggs tasting like a body parts. I was also sick of having to sprint to the bathroom shortly after eating them. (2007 update: I started eating egss and cheese again in 2005. No major gastrointestinal events so far.) Fortunately, I live in a major metropolitan area, so there are lots of restaurants I can go to that serve something meatless besides salad. (I hate salad; it's not a meal, it's not filling, it's not satisfying and most of the time it has no taste because the produce used to make it sucks. I really hate it when people who eat meat think that we can go somewhere for dinner and expect that I'll be happy with a damn salad. Actually, none of my friends do that, but the idea annoys me. Salads are for people on diets, and I'm not on one. I will eat salads if I'm on the mood, but generally if I'm going to eat out salad is not what I go out for. Anyway, I'm going to shut up about salads now.)