The Plan or Road Map to Success

Picture a baseball diamond, if you will.

Now picture Cleveland as home plate and Maryland's Eastern shore as third base. We're starting on third base for the first four weeks of the season. We'll head home for Week 2, the season opener, but third base will provide us with a great base location to visit the first three away games.  Week 1 is in Philly which is less than a two hour drive away (from where I stay), Week 3 is in Miami (booked a cheap flight on Spirit Airlines to Ft. Lauderdale), and Week 4 is against RGIII's old squad in our nation's capital.  Perfect!

After that, we pack up our things, head home＊ and.. uh..score.  From Cleveland we'll be able to easily road trip to the remaining road games with the farthest city being Nashville. I should have at least one partner-in-crime for that game and I've always wanted to visit Nashville as an adult so we'll probably make a few day trip out of it.

Question: Why are we‡ starting with a base in Maryland?

Vinnie: Good question. I'm young, single, and sans children so I decided that the East coast would be fun to check out. Plus my brother lives there and I'd get to spend time with him and my niece so here we are.

Q: Why did you use a baseball diamond as your analogy?

V: Another good one. While all games this season will be played East of the Mississippi River, a schedule like this only happens once every twelve years. So in future seasons, should I attempt this feat again, it might be useful to have multiple bases should time and money permit it.  Another one of my bases is located in Salt Lake City where I have a good amount of resources and its central location in the West is great for AFC and NFC road matchups out that way.

Q: Did you plan to move or was it luck?

As stated above, I have nothing tying me to one particular location so when I decided to follow the Browns for a season, the move just made sense. I am, however, in the middle of a year lease agreement on my apartment, but my landlord will allow me to break it IF I do all of the legwork to find the next tenant. The lesson here is that everything is negotiable, but you won't get it unless you ask.

My challenge to you this weekend is to ask for something that you assume you won't get or you feel you'll get turned down. You might be surprised at what happens.

Stay tuned. There's lots more ahead after these messages..



＊ I couldn't get SI to publish my "I'm Coming Home" letter so I'll probably have to post it here
‡ I use 'we' as in the Royal "we" (the editorial) as in this is a solo mission, but with the Browns Backers Nation I'm never alone. Plus, I imagine I'll be recruiting one or more of my friends as I go and will most likely be travelling with at least one other person.

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