36 Days to Opening Day

Opening Day 2008 for the Timber Rattlers is April 3. That is 36 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 a Babylon 5 novel, Personal Agendas by Al Sarrantonio. I love it when characters in a work of fiction set in the future talk about a work of fiction that is set in their past, but our present.

“Wow,” Dr. Stephen Franklin chimed in. “You’re talking real cloak-and-dagger stuff here. Sounds like James Bond."

“Who?” Garibaldi asked.

“James Bond,” Franklin explained, “was the hero of a series of twentieth-century Earth novels. He was always getting into impossible situations and always getting out of them. Very smooth guy.”

“I’m…familiar with the James Bond books,” Sheridan said. “They were a bit silly, but enjoyable. The point here is,” he continued, growing serious, “that G’Kar needs us. I had a dream not twenty minutes ago that told me why I’ve been feeling so restless and uneasy since he had been brought to Centauri Prime. In my dream G’Kar said to me, ‘I’m standing behind you.’ Basically, that’s what he’s always done. Even though the protection of his homeworld always came first, I can’t think of a single instance where G’Kar was ready to sacrifice any of our lives to attain any of his goals. In his own way he’s been a constant friend.”

Put today’s excerpt in a baseball context.