A quick homage to my sports hero
I'm tired, I'm a little depressed, and I've had kind of a rough day. So I'm not really up for deep thought right now.

However, I will share this: 11 years ago today, Nolan Ryan threw his seventh no-hitter.

Nolan Ryan is my favorite athlete of all time. He's the real Unrepentant Texan. On the field, he'd just as soon throw a 100-mph heater through you as say hello. Off the field, he did the things he needed to do to ensure he'd have business success after his career was over, and he trained hard enough to make sure his career wouldn't be over until he was 46. He also once beat the crap out of a guy half his age who dared to charge the mound against him.

Thanks to a fortuitous radio signal, I picked up the last two innings of Ryan's seventh no-hitter on the radio in Anytown, 400 miles from the old Arlington Stadium. I had to move the radio around our little apartment several times to keep the signal. Finally, I took it outside. I'm sure the neighbors found it odd that I was holding the antenna in one hand and holding the other hand aloft.

Earlier that night, Rickey Henderson had set the all-time stolen base record. Henderson celebrated by ripping the bag out of the ground, and screamed in post-game interviews ad nauseum about how he was The Man.

A few hours later, when the real Man struck out Roberto Alomar to seal the Rangers' 3-0 win, he celebrated by smiling big, pumping his fist and hugging his catcher. He acted like he had been there before. In post-game interviews, he said, "This one will be especially gratifying because it was in front of the Arlington Stadium crowd."

That, folks, is how you play the game.