The Friday Hangover: So, what are the chances that we'll get to see you suit up regularly this season?
Matt McClelland: It is going to be harder this year. I do live three hours away, and the first few weeks I will still be teaching. Ad in a few road trips and vacations that are already planned, and I will not be the regular that I once was. My goal this year is to be there for the playoffs. I certainly wouldn't take myself with the number one pick…second rounder definitely.
FH: You've seen the captains on the website. If you could pick one to play for, who would it be and why?
MM: Wow. Honestly I don't see a captain that I wouldn't get along with. Being a natural leadoff hitter, I'd have to say that you and frankovich would probably best fit my talents. However, I would be lying if I said I wouldn't be excited at a chance to play on a team with Rando or Lee.
FH: You've probably also noticed that when naming captains, Nate had the motive of spicing up the SBL by creating rivalries. Case in point: two of them were to aid a budding rivalry (Bryan Frankovich and myself) and Lee Nespor was quoted as saying that he would "beat the Hebrew" out of Billy Weisberg. Are there any players you consider yourself in a rivalry with?
MM: Honestly I don't have that many rivalries left not that Frankovich and I have come to…like each other. I honestly like playing against the best players in the league. It makes me want to perform that much better. Beating a Nate Tomko or a Bryan Frankovich is always an accomplishment. It's more a respect thing than a rivalry.
FH: Since you've been in the league for four seasons now, can you explain the differences between your feelings toward the SBL upon entering and your feelings now?
MM: I really can't claim to be around for the formative years of the league. I'm assuming your talking about the widely held assertion that baseketball is way too serious, Honestly, I like the competition. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the Ladies, but if all the teams didn't give a shit, the league would suck. The best years in the league have been when there is just enough parody: one crazy team willing to make fools of themselves, one semi-dominant team, and several others who can beat anybody on any given day. That to me is what makes for an exciting baseketball season. I'm also glad we have semi-locked down the league. It's still the place I'd rather be on 97 percent of my Sundays.
FH: Seriously, how were you able to manage all of the egos on the Serbian Jew Double Bluffs?
MM: I think the key to being a good captain is to lead by example. It's a lot easier to tell the greatest baseketball player of all time to sit a couple innings when you've gone 7 for 8 and are still sitting next to him. If I had gone into that season thinking about winning player of the year, I wouldn't have, and the Bluffs wouldn't have been the team they were.
FH: What do you consider to be your greatest moment as a baseketball player?
MM: The 2005 beach vacation. SBL championships and awards are nice, but the friends that I've made in the SBL are a million times more valuable to me. It's nice to have a place where you can randomly show up after being away for six months and be treated like family. I guess the beach vacation really was the first time I saw these people as lifelong friends….not just fellow players.
FH: What do you consider to be your worst?
MM: Missing the playoffs last year was a tough blow to me. For someone who prides himself on being there when his team needs him…I felt like shit.
FH: In last week's interview, Bryan Frankovich named you one of his favorite players to play with. Are the feelings mutual?
MM: For rivalries sake, I wish I could say otherwise but the feelings are indeed mutual. I've played with a lot of great ones and Bryan is one of them. He's actually a good guy and we fit really well on the court. One of these days he's going to decide he wants to be the Omega of the league and he will get it done. If he had the drive of Nate Tomko, we'd be talking about this kid as the best in the league. His time is coming.
FH: How do you feel about a possible return of PJ & the Ladies?
MM: I'm still undecided. If PJ returns full time, and Joel makes a few random appearances, it would kick ass. If they come back and don't try to stick it to President Tomko, it will be more MJ with the Wizards than MJ with the Bulls.
FH: Stepping outside the boundaries of the SBL, and I ask this because you were an English major who is now a Librarian, describe your life in one book (or more, if necessary).
MM: This is really hard. Ummm, I'd say the Robert Frost anthology would be one. Nobody quite understood what it is like to be a person living in modern times than he did. He got that sometimes life can suck and you just need a break- but he also realized that if we don't live life, we miss out on our best opportunity at happiness. I also relate to The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. Self understanding can be a great thing, but it can also be a curse. I could go on, but I'd rather hear you tell the people about how Harry Potter has touched your life. (Editor's note: I may have actually understood that joke had I actually red any of the books or seen any of the movies. Oh well.)
FH: Who's better at beer pong: Billy Wesiberg or Nate Tomko?
MM: Being on any type of a team with Nate brings out a killer instinct in me. Recently though, we haven't been the beer pong force that we once were (culminating in our embarrassing loss last weekend). Still, Billy and I just never seem to win.