"Poochy" (his nickname, according to Bill James) has good power and speed and he's an ex-Met. On the other hand, he gets half his at-bats in the spacious Astrodome and in spring training he was fighting Richard Hidalgo for a job, so when the chance to trade him for Denny Neagle came up in the offseason, I jumped at it.

Of course, Neagle and Alou then promptly went on the DL, so "Poochy" will be playing full-time all year and I won't see any dividends until May. Well, no use crying over spilled milk, as they say.

Pardon my stream-of-consiousness rambling, but the holder of baseball's "Iron Man" record prior to Gehrig was Everett Scott. Coincidentally, Dr. Everett Scott (a Rival Scientist) was the ex-tutor of Brad and Janet in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show".

Update 8-16-1999: Adding insult to injury, the Neagle trade didn't actually pay any dividends until July.