M.L.

Dear Nick Johnson,

BallWonk calls you Riker because of your face hair. When you have face hair, that is. Which you should, because actually your face is kinda pudgy, in a Rubenesque sort of way, and that's not a good thing for a guy. And not the Mario mustache, either, but the full beard.

Anyway. BallWonk also calls you Riker because you've always been the get-things-done guy. Oh, sure, Picard was smart and all, and he had the voice. But when success hung on someone sneaking into Starfleet headquarters and eating disgusting live worms, or on going down to the planet and kicking some alien ass, or on taking command of a hostile Klingon ship, it was always Riker getting the job done.

And if you think of your doubles, especially that two-RBI one in the eleventh, as baseball versions of kicking alien ass, and if you think of taking a walk and stealing second as the baseball equivalent of eating those Starfleet worms, you can see how the comparison works.

So you just keep right on taking command of the away teams and beaming into danger.

Delegate Count: Soriano 6, Zimmerman 6, Riker 5, Chief 3, Schneider 2, Patterson 2, O'Connor 2, Ramono 2, Pedro Armas 2, Tex 2, Livo 2, Vidro 1, Church 1, Barbarian 1, RC 1, LeCroy 1.