54 Days to Opening Day

Opening Day 2008 for the Timber Rattlers is April 3. That is 54 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 Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World edited by Chris Scarre. And you thought there were only seven. Nope, 70. This one is one of which you may not be familiar.

The Treasury of Atreus is in fact a tomb, but due to its magnificence it was long believed that it once held the treasures of King Atreus, the father of Agememnon. It was built around 1350 BC, and although the identity of its original occupant is unknown, it is truly befitting a king, with a chamber soaring to over 13 m (43 ft) in height and an entrance passage 37 m (121 ft) long. It stands to the southwest of the citadel of Mycenae in the Greek Peloponnese, and the prestige and wealth of the dead within and of the community as a whole could be measured by its monumentality: it exceeded all practical purpose. A spectacular achievement of ancient architecture, the Treasury of Atreus is the finest example of its type, both by virtue of its size and the fineness of its finish.

Put today’s excerpt in a baseball context.