He's a great player; I think everyone's surprised at just how good a
job he's been doing. Everyone I talk to prefers Eckstein-Grudzie to
Renteria-Womack. And you're right, he's a good-looking guy too ;) I
love it when he takes his cap off and you can see his eyes for a
change.

I live about 3 hours north of the stadium in rural Missouri. I used
to only get to one game every 2 years, but this year I'm more
obsessive than ever (except when Ozzie was playing, but that was when
I was a kid and couldn't exactly control my stadium visits, lol) and
so far I've been to 3 games (one @ Busch the day after Grudzie hit for
the cycle, and the 2 we won in Kansas City). I'm definitely going to
at least 1 more - possibly 3 more. The other game I have tickets to
right now happens to be on Mark's birthday, though I didn't know it at
the time I bought the tickets!

I was watching Mark during the pre-game warmups in Kansas City, and it
was obvious just how well he and David get along. I know he's
mentioned it before, but once they were both out of the dugout (with
the exception of batting practice) it seemed like they were always
either tossing the ball around to eachother, or just walking and
talking.

He walked into the dugout *right* in front of where I was standing
during practice, and I thought I should holler or wave or something
but I just froze, lol. *slaps forehead* I was even wearing a shirt I
made with his name on it, since you can't find any commercially
available shirts of his (unless you get a special order jersey, which
I can't really afford)

~Brianna