I wanted to say a bit about the conversation with my cousin up in NY, and then some other *good* family stuff as well.

The conversation was a real test of my sleight of tongue.  Much as I love my cousin, she is a Yankees partisan who absolutely hates the Sox.  And of course, I used to be a Yankees fan too, not the vindictive kind, but she has no idea that I switched sides.  NO IDEA!  So there we were on the phone, and of course the conversation eventually turned to baseball.  I think I did a damned good job of deflecting any suspicion.  

She was talking about how "we're starting to come around," and of course I haven't been paying much attention to the Yankees other than noticing the standings and occasionally checking on the meager few players who I still retain any fondness for.  So there I was, clueless, and trying to act like I wasn't in fact clueless!  I told her that because I live out of the NY market I watch anything and everything that comes down the pike on TV (which actually is not the case right now, because for the most part I follow the Sox and check on a handful of isolated players elsewhere).  That was one way to let her know that I don't keep up with the Yankees all that much without telling her WHY...but I did end up dropping a couple of names into the conversation because right before we got off the phone I was telling her a story I read about Bobby Abreu from his minor league days, when he played single-A right here where I live.  It had to do with him not speaking any English back then (he was all of 18 at the time and had just arrived from Venezuela).  That led to a discussion of the other Latin-American players on the Yankees and their command (or lack thereof) of English.  The ones in question are really young, around Jacoby and Dustin's age.  I told her maybe it's just a function of age and years of service because the 30-something Latin-American players mostly do just fine in English.  I mentioned Papi and Lugo in particular, and then said that I have a little bit of trouble deciphering what Manny says in interviews.  My cousin started laughing.  "But he grew UP here in New York!"  Yeah, I know that, from 13, as did Lugo.  Why Manny is harder to understand I don't know, seeing as how he's been here the longest of any of them.  At any rate, my cousin didn't seem to wonder why I would be so familiar with what those guys sound like.  Maybe she figured that I would have heard them in interviews because of the rivalry, but in any case she didn't express any anger whatsoever, so she *absolutely* had no clue that I've jumped the fence, because all hell would have broken loose if she had figured it out.  Anyway...I found the whole conversation amusing and more than a little bit reassuring.  She and her mother are the two family members who would be seriously angry with me if they knew the truth, and I had been feeling apprehensive about talking to them as a result.  So...it's all good now!  Now I just have to break the news to my sister, who rooted for the Rockies in the WS because she couldn't get past the rivalry, but she's not a "hater," and as my nephew is going great guns in T-ball (see below), no doubt much baseball will be discussed in the immediate family over the next many years.

I just HAVE to brag on my nephew, y'all.  He's currently 6-1/2 and, besides being far ahead of his peers academically, he's athletically gifted as well.  He plays soccer and T-ball, has shown aptitude in golf, and enjoys running around the yard with a football calling his own plays.  Of most interest to me, of course, is how he's doing in T-ball.  Well...let's put it this way.  Last season he turned an unassisted triple play.  Yes, he did.  His coach told my sister that he's never seen a kid do that (I actually didn't realize that was such a rare play until it happened in the bigs a couple of weeks ago for only the 14th time).  Oh yeah, and he's apparently learning to switch hit and recently got an outfield hit off of a pitcher rather than the tee.  I can't wait to see what he does with this, and am of course giving him plenty of encouragement.  Got him a bat and a satchel full of T-balls for his most recent birthday! You go, little guy!