Why We Love: Dan Uggla

Hello, friends. My name is Ted, and I mostly write over at A Price Above Bip Roberts, one of the least funny and relevant blogs in the entirety of the sports blogsphere. On Sunday nights, though, I come on over here to Neate's place and pen a little feature called "Why We Love."

The point of it is to explain why YOU, as a baseball fan, should love just one of the many men who leave it all out there for you seven days a week, all summer. We try to avoid the big names - who needs another reason to love Manny Ramirez or Nomar Garciaparra, honestly - and focus on the little guys of the world.

This week: Marlins 2B Dan Uggla.

Dan Uggla is hot right now, but to hear girls at my office tell it, he's hot all the time.

See, a girl I work with went on a few dates with Hanley Ramirez (or so the urban legend goes), and on one of them - last offseason - he brought along Uggla. She confessed to another girl at work (as I sat behind them, completely eavsdropping), "Dan Uggla is so hot."

I doubt she was referencing his play on the field, although if she said it right now, she'd be right. In his last 7 games, Uggla is 8 for 22 with 3 HR and 7 RBI. The Marlins are still three games under .500 and nine games back of the Mets, but they're slowly putting a dent in the NL East. And I mean, heck - what a DP combo in that middle with Uggla and Hanley Ramirez. If his torrid week and his cornerstone role in a handsome double play combo isn't enough to make you love him, maybe these reasons will help out:

- Love him because his last name means "owl" in Swedish. How cool is that?

- Love him because he's distantly linked to Swedish royalty. I used to tell people in elementary school that I was distantly linked to Belgian royalty.

- Love him because Columbia, Tennessee (where he went to high school) now has a day named in his honor, and he's received this distinction before turning 28.

- Love him because he went to the University of Memphis, making himself arguably the most relevant baseball player to emerge from there (in terms of overall alums, we're still partial to Anfernee Hardaway).

- Love him because Marlins TV announcers Rich Waltz and Tommy Hutton exclaim, "His name is ... DAN UGGLA!" when he blasts home runs (they also scream "HAMMER TIME!" when Josh Willingham does the equivalent).

- Love him because his first career stolen base in the majors was a steal of HOME on April 21, 2006 against a division rival (Philly) no less.

- Love him because he's potentially the first MLB player ever to be named to the All-Star Game in the same season he was a Rule 5 pick-up.

Or, you know, just because he's hot. In more ways than one.