Bear with me, because this story takes a little while to get to baseball related point.

As part of the subdivision that I live in, we have what are called “gang style mailboxes.” I still get a kick out of that name. Basically instead of the mailman (or in our case, mailwoman) delivering the mail right to our door, we have to drive to the end of the cul de sac and pick up our mail in a tiny box. If we get a package, they leave you a key to one of the larger mailboxes.

I knew Baseball Prospectus 2005 had been shipped, and I did the math and thought it should arrive Saturday. My wife, my son, and I were driving home from the mall, and at that point it was dark. My wife was driving and we stopped to get our mail. She pulled out the envelopes and shut the door. I had her go through the bills/junk we had gotten to see if we had gotten the key to the larger mail boxes, and she said we hadn’t. I asked her to open our little box back up just to double check to see if the key was in there, and she said something to the effect of it not being in there and not doublechecking.

I let it go, and then this morning I checked Amazon.com to see when it should be arriving. When I checked the package tracker, lo and behold it said it was delivered Saturday. So before my son’s doctor appointment, we stopped back at the mailboxes only to find my wife had missed the key, and my book was sitting in the mailbox for two entire days.

In order to save shipping, I also bought a copy of the 2004 Hardball Times Baseball Annual. I had bought the eversion, but figured I might as well pick up a hard copy to keep on the shelf. The Hardball Times Annual is a great read, and if you haven’t picked up a copy, you can go here and buy one. You won’t regret it.

Speaking of Hardball Times, Studes has done another outstanding piece of work on relief pitching. I’ve been trying to hammer some of these points without really having the facts at hand, but I’m really looking forward to the Hardball Times Bullpen Book coming out here soon.

Permalink | Posted in 2005 Tigers