One of two things happened yesterday for major leaguers who have finished their season.

Either they tied up all the loose ends (or paid someone to do it for them) and got on a plane or in their car and headed home to hibernate for the winter.

Or, they headed to the ballpark to pick up all their belongings and finish packing to leave the next day.

You wouldn't believe the stuff that is accumulated over the season. Letters, baseball cards, requests for donations, some gifts and lots of clothes and equipment. It sounds mundane but you really end up with a lot of stuff that you don't want to throw away -- but you don't exactly know what to do with. You end up boxing up all of it and shipping it to the house. I still have these boxes in my garage, and I am just waiting for family and friends to come over so I can give it away.

One of the many duties involved with ending a season is paying your clubhouse dues and tipping everyone. This goes hand-in-hand with saying all your good-byes. The baseball clubhouse is like a resort, of sorts, and we pay and tip all the attendants. Some players wait to the end of the year to do this, which means running around to find everyone before they leave.

Packing up your temporary housing and saying your good-byes to the people you saw in your everyday life are all must do's for the last day in your major league city. For me, leaving has always been a numb feeling. You wonder if you will ever see some of the guys you have seen every day for the last 200 or so days.

Some equate this time with the last day of school, but I tend to disagree. The end of a school year is full of optimism and excitement and is more like the end of spring training. Don't get me wrong, after a long hard season it's nice to take the kids to Disney or go to the movies at normal hours. But for all the teams but one, the year ends in disappointment, and for most players the season ahead is uncertain and not guaranteed.

Around the blogosphere: Over at the JSOnline, Jim Breen argues against my blog about Prince Fielder. He states that I have three flaws in my argument. He says:

• I am coming from a biased perspective, in which I played with the man and likely overvalue him due to a personal connection. OK, honestly, I like Prince. But I wouldn't go public with something that I didn't feel was true. Playing in the major leagues for parts of seven seasons, I have played with many first basemen but wrote about only one. Some say biased perspective; some may say it's an educated one.
• I completely ignore his defensive woes at first base, which is actually important. Answer: no, it's not. The best defensive first baseman I have ever played with was Travis Lee. Great guy, great fielder ... but not Prince Fielder. (There, now I have written about two first basemen.)
• The argument skips the part about how the Brewers will legitimately improve their starting rotation after allotting $100+ million to one player. This may be true, but if you want an upper-echelon type pitcher you're going to have to spend that kind of money to sign those guys, as well.

Crossing over to the NBA: Kobe Bryant has been quoted recently stating he would win a one-on-one match up with King James. I agree. I think of LeBron as a better basketball player, but Kobe is a great defender and with a one-on-one game that's huge (assuming they are playing "make it, take it").

Fall brings football: It's hardly Milwaukee's October temperatures, but the weather is changing down here in Florida. It was a very nice 85 degrees today with low humidity, and it's nice to start to see a change in the every-day heat wave of summer. As a kid growing up in West Virginia and North Carolina this time of year, when the leaves would start to change and the weather gets a little colder, it meant one thing: high school football. This is a special time of year when school spirit is at an all-time high, children get to act like warriors, and old men tell tales of exaggeration.

Take a little time to go visit the old stomping grounds and take in a football game. Travel back in time. It's good to remember where you come from. It will lead you to how you got to where you are.