70 Days to Opening Day

Opening Day 2008 for the Timber Rattlers is April 3. That is 70 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 book is Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. New York in this passage isn't New York. It is ... difficult to explain. Read the book.

“Then we can get to New York.”

“Can we, Pieter? Have you ever tried to walk across four kilometers of ice?”

“Oh – I see what you mean. Just imagine what Stores would say if we asked for a set of skates! Not that many of us would know how to use them, even if we had any aboard.”

“And there’s another problem,” put in Rodrigo. “Do you realize that the temperature is already above freezing? Before long, that ice is going to melt. How many spacemen can swin four kilometers? Certainly not this one.”

Dr. Ernst rejoined them at the edge of the cliff, and held up the small sample bottle in triumph.

“It’s a long walk for a few cc’s of dirty water, but it may teach us more about Rama than anything we’ve found so far. Let’s head for home.”

They turned toward the distant lights of the hub, moving with the gentle, loping strides that had proved the most comfortable means of walking under this reduced gravity. Often they looked back, drawn by the hidden enigma of the island out there in the center of the frozen sea.

And just once, Dr. Ernst thought she felt the faint suspicion of a breeze against her cheek.

It did not come again, and she quickly forgot about it.

Put today’s excerpt in a baseball context.