34 Days to Opening Day

Opening Day 2008 for the Timber Rattlers is April 3. That is 34 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 The Best American Sports Writing (1997) edited by George Plimpton. This excerpt is from the article Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. This eventually became a book and a movie.

Throughout that day, [Rob] Hall’s friends begged him to make an effort to descend from the South Summit under his own power. At 3:20pm, after one such transmission from [Guy] Cotter, Hall began to sound annoyed. “Look,” he said “if I thought I could manage the knots on the fixed ropes with me frostbitten hands, I would have gone down six hours ago, pal. Just send a couple of the boys up with a big thermos of something hot – then I’ll be fine.”

Put today’s excerpt in a baseball context.