Having now written that unsolicited ramble, I now confront the question of: Why? Why am I doing this, and who am I doing this for?

My best answers are, for no good reason, and for no one in particular.

Whatever I write here will be with the assumption that the audience might only be one person - me. Admittedly, writing for one's self on the Web is not unlike talking to yourself in a public place - but though I try to avoid doing that, it's not like I haven't done that. There are probably worse things.

And I figure, occasionally, someone else might read this. My brother or sister. An indulgent friend. I don't know - someone. I'm not sure it matters.

And I guess I enjoy the idea of writing about baseball enough that I'm going to try not to worry about the audience thing too much.

But if there's one thing I do want to make sure you all know, it's that I'm not so delusional that I'm thinking big about this site. I'm thinking small. Very small. Just something to have fun with for the time being.

But if there is someone else out there reading this, please feel free to write with your comments. I'm also very open to posting reactions on the site, as well as topics or discussions or questions that you would like to initiate. E-mail me at ShiftyJ@aol.com.

Thanks!