Lou Boudreau

As far as sleeping goes, you're up and ready to go at six in the morning. Spring training was always a combination of relaxing and working, and I missed that quite a bit. I missed being around the ball field. A baseball. A bat. The smell of the uniform, you might say. Talking baseball. Seeing opponents as well as the Cubs.

I thank the Lord for having the kind of a career that doesn't happen very often to an individual. A lot of times when I was playing, I pinched myself to see if it was really me and if it was really happening. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change anything.

Adidas is just right. They've been, like, a partner I couldn't be more thankful for. I really feel like they've helped increase my popularity. You know? It's tight to be able to attach to their brand and be able to add whatever I can offer to their brand. It's nice to know that they appreciate it. They are always showing love.

I don't write directly on to the computer because I don't think well facing forward with fingers on a keyboard. I think better looking down holding a pen. And the concentration quotient of pen and paper is higher than when I'm moving words around on screen.

Smart authors, faced with storms, chose to create umbrellas. That's why a diverse group of authors banded together to create The Fiction Writer's Co-op, which will work to find innovative ways to promote each other's work and cheer each other on in a very competitive field.