85 Days to Opening Day

Opening Day 2008 for the Timber Rattlers is April 3. That is 85 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.

It was pointed out recently that J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday was last week -- January 3. To make up for missing that anniversary, the rest of the week is Tolkein Week on the countdown to opening day.

Today’s passage is from The Two Towers as Pippin and Merry try to figure out Treebeard and the Ents.

‘I wonder where Isengard is?’ said Pippin.

‘I don’t know quite where we are,’ said Merry; ‘but that peak is probably Methedras, and as far as I can remember the ring of Isengard lies in a fork or deep cleft at the end of the mountains. It is probably down behind this great ridge. There seems to be a smoke or haze over there, left of the peak, don’t you think?’

‘What is Isengard like?’ said Pipin. ‘I wonder what Ents can do about it anyway.’

‘So do I,’ said Merry. ‘Isengard is a sort of ring of rocks or hills, I think, with a flat space inside and an island or pillar of rock in the middle, called Orthanc. Sauruman has a tower on it. There is a gate, perhaps more than one, in the encircling wall, and I believe there is a stream running through it; it comes out of the mountains, and flows on across the Gap of Rohan. It does not seem the sort of place for Ents to tackle. But I have an odd feeling about these Ents: somehow I don’t think they are quite as safe, and well, funny as they seem. They seem slow, queer, and patient, almost sad; and yet I believe they could be roused. If that happened, I would rather not be on the other side.’

Put today’s excerpt in a baseball context.