There have been better (seasons), definitely. I don't know what to attribute it to. I don't know if it was a freak thing, once every 20 years or so, but it's bound to happen every once in a while. Maybe the bettors are getting smarter and the books are getting dumber.

They're all working hard and really improving. They won't hit their strength until the winter and spring seasons, then we'll see just how strong they are.

We've had a few good years in a row. Maybe it's time for the players.

In college, it was pretty consistent there, too.

An early spring started one morning in March with a swarm of sudden, glassy, bird cries, and then the cool jewelry of primrose and violet loosened themselves in the dirt. Then summer burst into the world like a gorgeous car accident- opening eyes all over our bodies in the brilliant light. Fall- the smell of pumpkin guts, sluttish and unsweetened. Until winter fell all over us like pieces of heaven, glazed with oxygen or ether, hitting the grounder in small, cold shards. It was like a year in Eden where no Eve had ever lived.

We've been to Four Seasons a few times, but we've never won there.