Today is the 26th of August. What that means in a general context is that we are coming up on the final summer holiday of the year this weekend, and soon the lush chill of autumn will sweep in, bringing colour and death and richly scented air and iron grey skies overlooking postseason baseball and creeping darkness, earlier every day.
What the 26th of August means in a particular context at this moment is that if the recent pattern holds, tonight should be the night Zack Thompson takes the mound for Palm Beach. Thompson, you will hopefully recall, was the Cardinals’ first round pick in this June’s draft, and following a brief stint (as in two innings brief), he was pushed aggressively up, all the way to the Florida State League (High A ball).