...the Royals beat St. Louis in Game 7 of the World Series (the "I-70 Series"). It was the first championship I experienced of a team I grew up watching, so to say it was exciting was a bit of an understatement.

...I'm finally able to reflect & enjoy the run of this year's Mariners team. Although my ride or die team is the Royals, living in the Seattle area it was impossible to not get caught up in the excitement of the Mariners' playoff run. It was particularly fun to watch Cal Raleigh slug his way into the record books, besting some noteworthy names along the way.

Wait 'til next year!

I came off the high of watching the Mariners win last night and tuned in to the Dodgers-Brewers game, and…wow. Just…wow.

Remember when Ohtani came to MLB/the Angels? Although the majority opinion was that he would be good, there was not an insignificant number of people who doubted Ohtani would come anywhere close to replicating his accomplishments in Japan. Funny to think about that now, particularly after what he did last night…

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to attend a photo & autograph session with one of my childhood idols, Dr. J. I asked the Mantel community last week which item I should get signed, and instead of going with the winner I went ahead and got them all signed (plus an ungraded rookie card I had).

Dr. J flipped through each of the items I brought and said he hadn't seen them before (or at least seen them in a while), and we spent a couple of minutes chatting - he couldn't have been nicer. The ten year-old me is still giggling with the excitement of meeting him and I have absolutely zero regrets for ignoring the results...