All we can do is go by facts. Others can choose to disagree about the nature of the business. Frankly, we feel very fortunate to have a payroll in the $90 million range. It's a great baseball town but it's not a huge market. We can afford to sustain it only because we have such wonderful baseball fans.

Creatures whose mainspring is curiosity enjoy the accumulating of facts far more than the pausing at times to reflect on those facts.

I think we have to maintain some areas that are more rural in nature.

It's not just what you spend on the major-league payroll. In the last year we've purchased a Double-A franchise (in Springfield, Mo.), paid more than double for early-round draft picks and opened an academy in the Dominican Republic. We've made a much greater investment in international scouting and player development. Perhaps those things aren't as apparent as major-league payroll, but they're there and they have tremendous significance.

This is one of my favorite places. Some of the quirks of the design create opportunity for much more open standing space.

It's the way we traditionally do (payroll). That way we aren't caught short. By our calculations, we're showing fairly significant bump in payroll over '05.