On language, Bannister, and links

1) Sometimes, when my phone is singing an annoying tune and the sharp sunlight is scraping my tired eyelids open, I want to go back to bed instead of to my Spanish class. Then I try to remind myself that speaking both English and Spanish (if not also Japanese) is a pretty crucial skill for people in baseball, and I want to be a person in baseball. Sure, my Spanish class this semester is not required (I've already gotten all the required credits), and it's not exactly as intensive as I had hoped from a class called "Intensive Conversation," but I have to be there so I don't have any awkward language-barrier moments around Spanish-speaking players. (Actually, who am I kidding? My awkwardness, combined with my chronic whiteness, are surefire signs that no matter how many years I study Spanish -- I have 5 so far, I will spit out something horribly awkward 'en mi idioma segundo'*, proving nothing about the benefits of being bilingual, but proving plenty about how painful it can be to be me.)

What I need is a baseball-themed Spanish class, but as far as I know, the University of Nebraska does not offer that.

*in my second language
2) Ahhh, more excuses to write about Brian Bannister! I swear, if he wasn't already married, I'd go and try to marry him right now. He took part in the Royals Relay Chat series today, and as expected gave thoughtful answers to even the most basic questions. And hungry Royals fans can expect more from the blue glove-clad righty:

I wanted to let everyone here know that I will be doing a brand new mailbag-style chat twice a month here on royals.com. If your question didn't get answered, or you think of a question you want to ask me as the season progresses, go ahead and e-mail it to infocus@royals.com. I will be looking at all the questions you send me, and twice a month I will answer them for you.

Bannister also exposes teammate Luke Hochevar's questionable methods of Wii-ing:

The best Wii bowler is Luke Hochevar, who has several 300 games under his belt. However, he uses a controversial method (he sits down while he plays), and I don't know if that counts.

One last bit of Bannister-related goodies for you, in case you haven't seen it: He's Rany's #14 reason it's a great time to be a Royals fan.

UPDATE: Never mind, there's still another "last bit" of Bannister-related goodness from Bob Dutton. Silly oversight on my part.

3) Speaking of Rany, he did a fantastic interview with Sam Mellinger over at Ball Star. I highly recommend it.

4) Women rejoice! The Ladies... are back to blogging!

5) Being a student is lame. I wish I could write more here, but instead those crazy professors have me spending my evenings writing little useless computer programs or putting together nauseating Powerpoints about Quinceaneras, and other such silliness. I am terribly sorry, but thank you for sticking around anyway.