**OnlineHost** Welcome to Visitor's Dugout Chat!

**OnlineHost** The dugout is nearly empty. Paper cups litter the ground.

WordUpThome: THESE TWINKIES HAVE BUILT QUITE THE DOM

WordUpThome: DOMICILE

Elijah_Price: /stares at feet

Yep.

WordUpThome: I THINK THIS IS THE LARGEST ROOM I HAVE EVER BEEN IN

WordUpThome: NOTHING LIKE A LARGE ROOM TO MAKE A LARGE FELLOW FEEL LIKE A CHICKEN NUGGET

WordUpThome: ME AND THE MISSES RECENTLY BUILT A BIG OLD BONUS ROOM OUT OF STUDS AND DRIED WALL BUT I FAIL TO FATHOM THE FATHOMS OF THIS PLACE

Elijah_Price: You know, when I was younger, and I'd hit a home run, I'd step slowly to first as I admired it.

Elijah_Price: I'd just watch it, as if it were a work of art. It was just a flying ball, though; a projectile. It couldn't be my art, because It wasn't "mine" anymore. I did what I could to send it flying, and then all I could do was watch. I no longer had a hand in where it went.

Elijah_Price: That's why I don't do that so much anymore. I usually just start running. It's no more than an act and a number, you know?

WordUpThome: WELL WHENEVER JIM HITS A HOME RUN HE FEELS PRETTY DEUTERONOMOUS ABOUT IT

Elijah_Price: See, the primary difference between me and that kid, is, well

Elijah_Price: You know that saying, about changing the things you can change, and accepting the things you can't, and being able to tell the difference?

WordUpThome: YEP, JIM HAS A CROSS-STITCH HANGING ON THE BEDROOM WALL THAT SAYS THAT

WordUpThome: I ALSO HAVE ONE IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM THAT SAYS "IS THERE LIFE AFTER LAUNDRY"

THE ANSWER IS "YES" TO BE HONEST BUT IT STILL CHORTLES ME UP

Elijah_Price: I think I've finally started to digest the third leg of that saying. The ability to tell the difference.

Elijah_Price: Once you can tell the difference, you find that there is far less you can change than you think.

Elijah_Price: And then I got conflicted about it, because it sort of makes a mockery of "personal mobility" and "responsibility" and "accountability" and such.

Elijah_Price: I mean, take you and me, Jim. We've taken similar roads, right? We hit an average of about 40 home runs a year, we've played for three different teams, I think our career OPS+ are remarkably similar.

WordUpThome: I WOULDN'T KNOW, I HAVE A COVERT OPS

GUFFAW

Elijah_Price: For the record, yours is actually higher than mine.

And despite all this, we're not going to win the World Series this year. It's just not happening. I don't think it's ever happening for us.

Elijah_Price: So where does that fall? Our inability to go to the White House and shake the President's hand, and give him a framed jersey? Is that something we can change, or something we can't?

WordUpThome: /pauses

WordUpThome: I'M AFRAID I DON'T HAVE AN ANSWER FOR THAT, KENNETH

WordUpThome: IT'S THE MISSING PIECE OF THE JIG-SAW PUZZLE THAT THE PUPPY ATE

Elijah_Price: /chucks empty paper cup

Damn it.

WordUpThome: BUT I SURE WOULD LOVE TO WIN

Elijah_Price: Me too.

WordUpThome:

WordUpThome: /looks at roof

NO CLOUDS AND NO CHANDELIER

WordUpThome:

IS THAT THE WORLD'S BIGGEST CEILING OR THE WORLD'S SMALLEST SKY

Elijah_Price: Hell if I know.

WordUpThome: WE SHOULD ASK EASIER QUESTIONS