If it were an ordinary year, a traditional year, sort of a simple first year of a president's second term, you would have to say he had a pretty good year.

This is the first year the chief?s job has been a two-year term,

Ever since I was in the hospital, I don't take anything for granted. I cherish every second that I have, especially on a baseball field. ... Being on the baseball field is better than being in a hospital bed.

After having a great first year, and a terrible second year, a sketchy start to this year, I was starting to question whether I was going to get a chance again.

Every second, every day I couldn't get on the field, I missed it. There was nothing that could replace that feeling.

The first type of abstraction from objects I shall refer to as simple abstraction, but the second type I shall call reflective abstraction, using this term in a double sense.