saturday 9

Sweet Caroline

1) "Sweet Caroline" has been sung during every Boston Red Sox home game since the 1990s. (Click here to watch Neil Diamond lead the fans in the first game after April's bombing.) Do you know the words well enough to sing along? I do!

2) Do you have a favorite major league baseball team? I'm in Red Sox Nation and love the Sox by default

3) Budweiser is the "official beer of major league baseball." Do you reach for a cold beer on a hot summer day? Not necessarily beer, but I've been known to have an adult beverage

4) Every season, more than a million Vienna Beef Hot Dogs are consumed by baseball fans at Chicago's Wrigley Field. When you get a hot dog, what do you put on it? I like the works--ketchup, mustard, relish and onions if available

5) The odds of a fan in the stands being hit by a baseball are 300,000 to 1. The odds of winning the lottery are (approximately) 1 in 12,000,000. Do you play the lottery? not very often and not very successfully

6) Though his song has been adopted by faithful Boston Red Sox fans, Neil Diamond was born and raised in New York City. Have you ever visited The Big Apple? I drove through the Big Apple on my Pennsylvania trip. $13 to cross the George Washington Bridge

7) Baseball players are notoriously superstitious. For example, the Cubs' Matt Garza eats Popeye's fried chicken every day that he pitches. Joltin' Joe DiMaggio touched second base with his foot every time he ran on or off the field. Do you have any superstitions? I tap the classroom door three times when I close it

8) A ball signed by Babe Ruth can fetch tens of thousands of dollars at auction. Have you ever asked a celebrity for his/her autograph? Stephen King signed my copy of Night Shift many years ago

9) Baseball means summer and summer means sun. Are you working on a tan, or do you slather on the sunscreen? I am one of the palest people on the planet. Which is ok. I was actually thinking about trying a spray tan this summer just to have a little color