Have you ever noticed that any time there's some kind of family gathering, it generally takes the women present approximately three hours to say goodbye? 

Seriously. 

I recently received one of those forwarded e-mails concerning how much easier life is for men than women.  The list must have contained 25-odd examples, but the one that stood above the rest went something like: “Men can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24th in 25 minutes.”  

A truer statement has never been made. 

It’s difficult to narrow down topics to discuss when faced with interviewing a celebrity of that caliber. You naturally want to ask everything that comes to mind, not knowing when you might have such a chance again. Luckily, I think I remained fairly calm and collected, not wanting to come across like an over-eager, star-struck fan (which I was, I absolutely was).

I met Don Mattingly. No, let me elaborate… I didn’t just meet him; I interviewed him, one-on-one, for a solid fifteen minutes. Don Mattingly, one of my favorite players of all time, a living legend. And I did it while working for this very newspaper.