WHY WE LOVE: ERIC BYRNES

Hello, friends. My name is Ted, and while I often write over here at A Price Above Bip Roberts, I do double duty on Sundays at Out of Left Field by taking a look at a player you SHOULD love, even if you don't (and hopefully convincing you of why that is).

Tonight's laudatory sire: Eric Byrnes of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Byrnes is currently batting .316 with 12 HR, 40 RBI, and 14 SB for the first-place Snakeskins, who lead the NL West by half a game over the Padres. In the past 7 days, he's 10 for 24 with 2 HR and 5 RBI as the D-Backs have surpassed the Friars in what might become baseball's most competitive division.

Why should YOU love the boy, though? Here's a few reasons:

- Love him because he entertains. Can you think of anyone with more "body-and-soul-on-the-line" catches in the past half-decade?

- Love him because he eschews the need for a "Broadcaster Boot Camp." The NFL's latest gimmick would mean little to Byrnes, who has already done playoff analysis work for both ESPN's Baseball Tonight and FOX's Game of the Week (as well as Games 1 and 2 of last year's World Series, or at least the pre-game show). He also has a show on KNBR, and we're sure Duane Kuiper has taught the boy a thing or two about voice intonation.

- Love him because he's unabashedly NorCal. The dude went to Saint Francis HS in Mountain View, the alma mater of such notable pop culture figures as Linda Cardellini (from Scooby Doo) and Benard Thomas of the Cornhuskers and later Ravens. Their school song goes a lil' something like this:

O lancers hail the brown and white /// Raise it to the sky /// Stand loyal to our Alma Mater /// Praise her name on high /// Let mountains echo back /// Our loud acclaim [stomp, stomp, stomp] /// Saint Francis High we pledge to you /// All honor, love, and fame!

- Love him because he denied the bucks. He was drafted by the Dodgers in '94 but chose to hit up UCLA instead. While at UCLA, he pinged metal bats with Garrett Atkins (now of the Rockies) and Troy Glaus (now of the Blue Jays, but more famously and relevantly of the Angels). He owned the Pac-10 while he was there, finishing his UCLA tenure with a .331 average and 75 doubles; the latter is still a Pac-10 record.

- Love him because his Redwood City roots also produced Geoff Blum (the hero of Game 3 of the 2005 World Series), Jeff Clark (a notable big wave surfer), and Rafael Contreras, who had a chance to be the lead guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers but pissed it away thanks to gambling problems and a bad attitude.

- Love him because other people do (we're all followers). A few years ago, Byrnes - then playing for the Rockies - had a group of high school kids on summer break follow him around the country, paying homage and testament to his amazing, run-and-dive-and-hit-lots-of-stuff-along-the-way catches.