143 Days to Opening Day 2008

Opening Day 2008 for the Timber Rattlers is April 3. That is 143 days from today. This off-season, the countdown will be based on books. Each day between now and Opening Day 2008, I will pick a random book out of my library and excerpt a passage off the page number corresponding with the number of days remaining to the first pitch of the new season. I will try not to repeat a book during the countdown.

Today’s excerpt is from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Volume 1 by, um, William Shakespeare.

This passage is from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Enter Quince for the Prologue

Prologue: If we offend, it is with our good will.

That you should think, we come not to

offend,

But with good will. To show out simple skill,

That is the true beginning of our end.

Consider then we come but in despite.

We do not come as minding to content you,

Our true intent is. All for your delight

We are not here. That you should here re-

pent you.

The actors are at hand and by their show

You shall know all that you are like to know.

Theseus: This fellow doth not stand upon points.

Lysander: He hath rid his prologue like a rough

colt; he knows not the stop. A good moral,

my lord: it is not enough to speak, but to

speak true.

Hippolyta: Indeed he hath played on his pro-

logue like a child on a recorder; a sound, but

not in government.

Theseus: His speech, was like a tangled chain;

nothing impaired, but all disordered. Who is

next?

Put today’s excerpt in a baseball context.