Last night my dreams included a fleeting interlude about the Cubs. It wasn't a drawn out affair or anything. Just one of those 10-second imaginings that sometimes stick with you the morning after.

The situation was the following:

It was a night matchup in midseason 2005. There was something vaguely urgent about the game (which, truth be told, was probably just my subconscious telling me I needed to pee), and the Cubs were in a bind. Neifi Perez was at the plate, Jose Macias was on deck, and Tom Goodwin was to follow Macias.

This isn't some lame joke; this really was my sleepytime batting order. And then, to both my delight and consternation, all three players got base hits. I was pumped that the Cubs had scored two runs on Goodwin's double, but I also had a mild sense of the yucks.

You know what those yucks were? The knowledge that the readers at The Cub Reporter were going to dish it out the next day. You going to whine about Neifi now? See, Goodwin and Macias do their part! In my dream, I was prepared to eat my crow and like it, too.

Bizarre. Not to make too much of the snippet (and acknowledging again that my bladder probably had as much to do with my "yucks" as anything else), but I thought I'd share. You see, even while sleeping I can't help but engage with the readers here at TCR. You've forced me to become a more knowledgeable baseball fan, a less cynical Cubs fan, and a better thinker and writer. Thank you for continuing to provide great dialogue.

Why am getting all mushy-eyed today? I realized this morning that my blogging anniversary passed a couple days ago. How the days have flown by, my dear. A year ago I started a rough and tumble lil' blog, Ball Talk, which had only a smattering of readers. Fortunately, Christian was one of them, and after a couple months I joined Ruz here at TCR. (Then last week, of course, I ate him.)

I'm grateful and humbled to be surrounded by such talented writers here at All-Baseball. I'm equally grateful to be a part of the larger world of online baseball writers. I'm grateful for the sport of baseball, which continues to provide me both joy and agony. I'm grateful for the readers, whose comments keep my honest and involved.

And yeah, I guess I'm grateful for Neifi, Macias, and Goodwin and their back-to-back-to-back hits. Their fanciful heroics may only be the stuff of dreams, but they helped remind me to appreciate the good goings I have.