LITTLE PUJOLS, A.J. NUMBER 2 1/2

That is he. He with head down, clearly eyes on the ball. Hip turned before the hands pass through. It's a classic swing. Upper cut, but classic. Patterned after his famous father no doubt. Fathers and sons and baseball.

It just doesn't get any better. Well, fathers and daughters and baseball are pretty special, too. Grandfathers and grandkids and baseball work also. Even hotdogs and baseball.

What doesn't go well with baseball? Well a lot actually, but that's not what the focus of this rendition of On The QT is about today.

For, you see, today is our son's birthday. He's about as old as I feel. I don't know what that means exactly, except I've really been blessed to feel physically and mentally as well as I do. Considering that he turns 36 today.

I feel a little older than he. Maybe 43, but no more than that. Yet at that age I was jogging. I really logged the miles in those younger years. My best was 1,215 miles one year, with my favorite distance 4 miles. Today I walk 3 miles.

It's funny. I jogged for maybe 8 years until I would see people who would say they had seen me walking early that morning. I would correct them, saying I was jogging. Some kind ones would not respond, some would look at me as if I were joking, some as if I were crazy, and one who said definitively, "No. When I saw you, you were walking."

So I quit. Some years past before I started walking. Comparatively I walk no faster than when I jogged. But our neighbors, at least the kind ones, think I walk fast. So I'm considering quitting. Just kidding.

It is strange what self analysis will do for you when an adult child of yours tacks on another year.

I recall some really good times with him and baseball. Including going to the All-Star Game with him in St. Louis. This Summer we have a Cooperstown trip planned. Aw baseball, you may not be a common denominator, but we lean on you. Just like Albert and A.J.

Well, maybe not just like them. Happy birthday, son.