I just finished watching American Idol on Fox. I know. I know. Some of you are going to roll your eyes. Some others are going to wonder what that has to do with a baseball blog. On American Idol, I just watched two guys who have dreamed since they were little kids of entertaining people and singing for a living. Now they've been through all the challenges and tonight, the audience is going to choose which one wins. And no matter how it comes out, their dreams have come true. That is what is so compelling about the show and the competition...people riding their talent as far as it will take them.

You're still wondering what that has to do with a baseball blog. If I am the typical American and in many ways I am, I grew up with baseball all around my me. I played it. I watched it. I traveled to Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium to watch it live. I played simulation games when I couldn't get baseball any other way. And you know what? I dreamed and wished that I had the talent to do what I loved more than anything else.

I'm no different than millions of others. That same exact wish and dream has touched countless people. And some 600+ of them at a time have that dream come true. As we watch them perform, we are aware of how they got there. We went through part of it ourselves. We might have seen some of them. They were the pitchers who were too fast for us to hit in Pony League. They were the ones who always seemed to have the big hit in the tournaments we played in. We identify with them. They have reached the dream that we had for most of our lives.

Oh sure some of them get really really successful and rise to the top like the A-Rods and the Jeters and Garciaparras and then they get the money that we'll never see in our lifetimes and we take pleasure in finding out their weaknesses and their follies. America likes to build up the dreamer and then knock them off the pedestal. But for those rookies...the new players who are just reaching their dreams, we root for them. It's always a sweet thing when a new player gets their first MLB base hit or win or save. We all smile and feel like a part of that story. We just witnessed the culmination of what we were a part of until we realized we weren't going to get there and got real jobs.

Yeah. American Idol has a lot in common with rookies in baseball. Sure, they have more talent than the ordinary joes among us. But they didn't out-dream us or out-wish us. They just reached a place that we wanted to go. And so we root for them and we cheer them on because they were once like us and we want what they are now receiving. A dream come true is always a compelling story whether it's Hank Blalock, Rocco Baldelli or Rueben Studdard and Clay Aiken. And we are cheering for you and for us.