This is the time of year when being a baseball fan gets fun. The All Star break is over and contending teams attempt to beef up their rosters by adding pieces in the hope that what they add will be enough to get their team into the World Series. It's also a time for those of us with teams in contention to begin watching the scoreboard much more closely.
It really is a beautiful time of year isn't it?
For those of you who don't know I currently reside in Greece where I'm the resident tennis pro at a 5 star resort. Been here for 12 years now and I've always been fascinated by the amount of tourists sporting MLB gear. Mostly they wear the fake Yankees caps and usually have no idea what the heck they are wearing; the hat looks cool to them. I have met a couple of real live New York Mets fans from Queens (Greek Americans from Astoria) but can honestly say I hadn't met any baseball fans from outside of America.
This past Tuesday that all changed.
I'd seen this guy a couple of days prior wearing a Mark Sanchez New York Jets jersey by the pool. I figured he might be American and this would be the only place he'd have the guts to wear such a thing. The next day he was sporting a Carmelo Anthony jersey and being a Jets and Knicks fan I definitely was intrigued. On Tuesday I saw the same guy wearing an Oakland A's jersey top which led me to believe the dude was one of those guys who wear jerseys because he thought they looked cool. Boy was I ever wrong.
Turns out the guy is from Denmark and is a monster American sports fan. He owns all the TV packages and in spite of the vast time difference he watches as often as he can. He knew all about the trade the A's made, knew the players and stats and was really excited about the A's and where he and most of us believe they are headed this season. It was a lot of fun talking with him and I was lucky enough to be able to take a photo (http://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/assets/4805580/HPIM2532__Large_.jpg) and thanked him for making the baseball world seem a little closer to me.
The other thing my Danish friend told me was that he was familiar with Athletics Nation. He just doesn't comment here. I wonder how many others outside the 50 states visit here regularly and don't let us know? If you are one of those hopefully you'll take this posting as an opportunity for us to get to know one another and for you to begin interacting with one of the best sports communities on the web!
Are you guys playing FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball? If you are there is another game today but you have to get your entry in by 1030am PST. I know it's awful early in the day but you've got a shot at winning $1,350 for just a $2 drop. Today should be even easier for you as there are only four available games for you to choose your rosters from. You can enter the game here.
Alex joined me on my daily show for his weekly spot and we talked about my meeting the fan from Denmark, Tommy Milone wanting to be traded, the next few weeks seemingly easier schedule and much more. Also joining me on the show was Indy Cornrows Tom Lewis to chat Indiana Pacers hoops and Andrew "Turks Teeth" from Halos Heaven joined me to talk about all things Los Angeles Angels. I'll leave the player below or you can download the show from my site here.