24 Days to Opening Day

Opening Day 2008 for the Timber Rattlers is April 3. That is 24 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 Lincoln’s Men: How President Lincoln Became Father to an Army and a Nation by William C. Davis.

“The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am. None who would do more to preserve it. But it may be necessary to put the foot down firmly,” [Lincoln] warned. “And if I do my duty, and do right, you will sustain me, will you not?”

Put today’s excerpt in a baseball context.