I've been putting off my intro until I post my first article, but that's taking longer than I'd hoped, so now I'm just gonna go ahead and get this part ouf of the way. I'm 25, and for those Shannon fans out there, I was "originally born" in Southern Illinois (Effingham to be precise), but I moved to/from St. Louis a few times while growing up, and now live in Belleville, just about 20 minutes from Busch. During the times I spent in St. Louis as a child, I only went to one game a year (on my birthday), and caught just a few more on the radio/TV. While living out of town, I barely followed the team at all. But since finishing school and coming home to roost in the St. Louis area in 2001, my fanaticism has been reborn, and I've gone to about 20 games a year, give or take. I'm also slowly becoming a stathead, but I've still got my training wheels on, so bear with me. As for that first article, I'm told that my Baseball Encyclopedia is in the mail...