Nate Hooton

For as long as I can remember, baseball has been a huge part of my life. I always dreamed about being a professional ball player, however, the problem was, I was just never really all that good. Growing up, I was never the "stat nerd," who knew everything about players from their career home runs on 3-2 counts to their favorite pregame meals. But, I also wasn't crushing bombs on a regular basis or setting school records for most stolen bases in a season. I was comfortably somewhere in the middle. As a tall, decently fit and somewhat coordinated athlete, I always had more heart than skill, which is what I think enabled me to play the game for fourteen years, through high school. Now, at 27, my metabolism and love for ice cold beer has finally caught up with me, and I have found myself getting closer and closer to that "stat nerd" status. I have become that guy who, while watching a Cards game at the bar, says things like, "Did you know that Albert Pujols turned an unassisted triple play in his first college game?" Completely useless information? Yes. However, I guess that's what helps to make me, me. I have put my dreams of becoming the next home run king to rest -- yes I know, about time -- and have embraced my position in the baseball world. It is a position that is frustrating, exciting, emotionally straining, yet ultimately, the most rewarding. The fan. My girlfriend has yet to see it this way, but we are working on that.