You're 26 years old and you've only been married for a year and a half … your wife just gave birth to your first child ... you've just been promoted at work ... it's finally stopped raining in Cleveland and summer is about to begin.   What do you do next?  Why, isn't it obvious?  You quit your job and enter the one-year MBA program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.  No money?  No problem, your wife can quit her job, too … at least you won't be lonely.

Such was my life about a year ago when I decided it was, er? --- a perfect time to go back to school.   Little did I realize what I was getting myself into.  But, all's well that ends well of course, and I actually lived to tell.   It's now the end of April (2000), and I just finished my classes.  Good to see that when I came out of my cave I still had a wife (barely), my kid still recognizes me, and the rest of my family and friends hadn't disowned me. 

And hey! I also still have my beloved Mudcats in the YCL, even if I did have to sell off majority ownership to Marge Schott to pay for school.  First thing she did of course was soil the team by trading for John Rocker.  I'm sure that explains the team's terrible 5-11 record so far … ‘ya know what an impact bad team chemistry can have. Not surprisingly, plenty of tickets remain for the Mudcats' home opener next week --- the “wait 'til next year” talk has already begun. 

But we may have the last laugh after all.  The Barones are moving to Folsom, CA next month (yes, the place with the prison that Johnny Cash sang about).  You see, I took a job with Intel at their Sacramento area site.  I still have the naming rights and an option to buy back my stake from Marge once the cash flow turns positive again.  J

My APBA experience started with the board game about 20 years ago.  Always loving a good beating, I looked forward to playing my Damned-Yankee-Hankie-waving twin brother Rick every year with my "powerhouse" 80's Indians teams.

My real-life baseball experience ended in 1990 when the Reds and Royals told me I was too "good" (or something like that) for their tastes ... It was just a numbers game, you know how plentiful good pitching is.   But, hey! I got another chance at stardom when I was recruited for the YCL in late 1997 --- talk about your lucky breaks!  I promised myself I wouldn't let this one get away.  J

Regardless, my future is set even if this YCL thing fails.  Our 1-year old, Carlo Allan, knows his destiny is to support his parents' retirement as a southpaw stud pitcher for the Indians.  We'll probably buy an insurance policy with baby #2 in the next year or two.   I keep telling my wife Jessica (who's also a twin) that we should try for our own 5-man rotation just in case Carlo blows his arm out --- we might even be able to do it with just one more pregnancy.   Of course, she's a really good sport about it ... she just points at me with her middle finger extended --- I think she means "one more year".