Why I love David Eckstein

We all know the guy is great. I mean, he's a fine ballplayer who works his butt off. He runs to first on a walk, for Pete's sake. He's got that can-do attitude we Americans love. He gives 110% every day, and he's just a good guy. He won MVP in the World Series last year, which earned him a new Corvette ZO6, and he gave it to his brother and continued to drive his Camry (or whatever run-of-the-mill car he owns). His family has been through hell and back with organ transplants, and he does lots of awareness campaigns on the issue of organ donation. You can practically see the guy's halo glinting out there on the field.

But the real reason I love David Eckstein is his sense of humor. As you all are probably aware, he hasn't been hitting well lately. La Russa, apparently in an effort to kickstart his hitting, moved him from the one hole to number 8 in the lineup. Holy cow, is that a drop. Sheesh, even Molina is batting before him (I loves me my Molina, and he's worked hard on his slugging, but he pretty much owns the eight hole). So there's ol' Eckstein, battin' away eighth instead of his usual lead-off spot. Most guys would probably take this pretty hard, but I think David's going to be fine. How do I know this? Well, he changed his at-bat song from Number One Spot by Ludacris to Blaze of Glory by Bon Jovi (lyrics are "I'm goin' doooooown, in a blaze of glooooory..."). It's hilarious.

You gotta love a guy who can laugh when he's in a slump.