Happy Birthday, Tom!

Before the day is over, I need to wish my buddy Tom a very happy 44th birthday. (My tribute from last year is here.) Tom currently balances the demands of teaching with the demands fatherhood and the demands of baseball: along with a few other expat guys, Tom now spearheads the recently created Korea chapter of SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research. Tom recently said to me, "Kevin, if there's anything I'd change about you, it's that I'd make you more interested in baseball." Sorry, Tom. I'd rather watch mixed martial arts or boxing or singles tennis or other individual sports. I've never been much of a team-sports fanatic. Too much randomness in team sports.

I'll be getting together with Tom and Charles in Seoul in a little over a week. That ought to be fun. I hope we eat a lot, so I can grace the vomitorium with a healthy contribution.

Tom seems to have the same baby-face gene that Michael J. Fox has, and I'm not sure I've seen any gray hairs peeking out of Tom's scalp in recent months. He's destined to outlive us all, which means that someone else will eventually have to express birthday wishes on my behalf (me, I'm planning to be dead by 60). If I'm James Hunt, Tom is Niki Lauda. Race on!

ADDENDUM: Why not rename the Korea chapter of SABR the Society for Korean Baseball Research and Documentation? That way, you could have SABR ("saber") in America and SKBRD ("scabbard") in Korea. No? Too vaginal? Rather stick with the phallic imagery?

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