Ok, I'm posting this after a few scotch so I welcome all ridicule for asking what seems like a silly question.

But me and few people were eating at Wood Ranch (mmm, need to keep up my pork fat blood level content) and we got into one of those never-ending debates over why the NBA now sucks, why MLB is boring, etc. etc.

We all mostly agreed that our favorite league by far is the NFL (hold on now) for about a million reasons that can be debated elsewhere, even with no LA teams.

But as much as I love the NFL (yeah I know, so does the rest of the country, get in line), they asked me if I could only keep one sport, which would it be. I said MLB. A few people laughed...or yawned at the notion.

But while I agreed with them that it takes about 10-20 MLB games to equal the excitement of one good NFL game, MLB and the Angels give me a hobby/interest no other sport can.

When the NFL season is done, I feel a sort of completeness and I'm ok waiting for the next go-around. When MLB ends, I enter a sort of depression and honest sadness.

So in trying to describe to them why baseball is so important to me, it was hard putting it into words.

What I realized in vocalizing it to them is that it's not any particular game that means much, and half the time if I'm at home, the game is on while the radio is on and I'm multi-tasking while watching/listening. The NFL on the other hand has me so glued to the set you'd think my life depended on it.

But with MLB, it's more of a lifestyle. I can't describe it really but I salivateat the thought of leaving work and looking forward to my drive home with the almost daily pre-game show, game, and post-game show. 4-5 hours of entertainment that while not riveting by any means, is wholly comforting in every sense of the word.

So I guess I'm curoius why the rest of you might have MLB as your top sport, if it even is.

For me, it simply is a strange security blanket I can't quite put into words but when it's not there, I feel nekkid.

Yes, it's not the most exciting. Yes, one can argue there are too many games, etc.

But if I had to pick one sport, despite the NFL being my favorite, it would still be MLB.

Maybe it's the over-used imagery of sitting in the garage while my dad worked on his car and hearing now hall-of-fame announcers painting that perfect picture before I even realized why I cared about sports at all, I dunno.

But I do now as much as I bitch about the MLB issues, I honestly don't think there is a drug on the market that could ever replace the lack of it.

Long live MLB and I can't wait for spring training already on March 4th!