I pray he can, in fact, take me yet higher.

The plan for today was to detail my fan-lust for Carlos Delgado, conveniently ignoring the scores of millions he is still owed. Then I read the news, and that changed everything, as you can imagine. Delgado will still be around tomorrow, and I'll plot schemes to obtain him for Jason Ellison. Until then, what are your thoughts on the news? Did you hear from MLB.com, or through an e-mail? It sure seems to....

Oh. You haven't heard? Good gravy. This is what it must have felt like to be Walter Cronkite, clearing his throat before telling millions of people exactly how their lives were going to be irreversibly altered. I suppose the best way to get it out is to just relay the subject line of the e-mail I received:

I'm not sure if there's another combination of words in the English language that could pique my interest quite like that. Just how did he rock it? Is everyone all right? You can find details here.

It turns out that Scott Stapp, The Voice of Creed - and, hell, let's not kid ourselves, an entire generation- has a new solo album coming out. As you would expect, it's being promoted by Major League Baseball at MLB.com. At first, I was terrified that Creed had broke up. I checked Creedosity.com, and Creedlemania.com, but I couldn't find any information of a breakup. The Scott Stapp fan forum, Stapp Rap, was mum on what the solo album meant as far as the band was concerned.

Then it occurred to me that Stapp is Creed. It doesn't matter who's with him. Horror started to turn into anticipation. This could be undistilled Stapp, which would be an even purer form of rockin' than before. Anticipation, however, turned into disappointment when I read the album isn't out just yet. But Major League Baseball knows what the fans want, because if you pre-order the CD through MLB.com, you get "immediate access to five (5) full-length audio streams from the album." So, I ordered two (one for the car, one for home), and immediately got the streams.

Thank you, Major League Baseball. And thank you, Scott Stapp.

But wait. There's more. If you are drinking something, swallow, because I do not want to be responsible for ruining your monitor or keyboard. According to the e-mail from MLB.com:

MLB has had a whole bunch of great contests in their time, but this might be the clincher. I can't think of another contest MLB could run that I would want to win more. Well, maybe the "Eat Rusty Staub's Unearthed Jockstrap As We Hold a Shotgun to the Head of Every Member of Your Extended Family Contest", but now we're just quibbling over details. This is incredible stuff, folks. Remember this post I wrote in July: I don't think I've ever been more prescient. It almost seems like Selig reads this site....

The last part of the e-mail I'll point out is this:

MLB.com has studios. Of course. I, uh, knew that. Who didn't? Even money that, at some point, Donald Fehr has done a rail off the chest of Morganna the Kissing Bandit in those very studios. I'm not one to spread rumors, so I'm not even going to bring up what I know about the Tony Bennett/Bob Uecker/Syracuse University Dance Team scandal. And the well-known producer MLB.com uses at the studios, "Bud" Spector, has a bit of a sordid past, as well.

So, now you know. And now you know why it was wholly inappropriate to write about anything else today. Comments on this are encouraged. After you make the appropriate phone calls to loved ones, of course.