Ok, that's not quite how John Lennon wrote it, but the idea certainly applies.

Over the past few months my student workers (primarily Josh Vaughan) and I have been cranking through the old stat files for various Wabash sports. Josh got the honor of entering every stat for every player in the history of Little Giant football since 1956. Let me repeat --- that's a stat for every player since 1956.

Now that's not to say we've put together every game for every player, but all of the season totals have been entered. So what does it mean and why in the world would we do it?

Well, for a couple of reasons. Number one, I'm a records guy. I love records, and I love to know where our current players stand on the all-time records list. With some of the changes in the computer software by my good friends at Stat Crew (yes Mike, Alex, and Monica, it's a quick plug!), tracking those records is so much easier than it ever was before. With the new data entered I can tell you the top-50 all-time tacklers in Wabash history, who has the best receptions per game average of any player, or any other stat that's been keeping you up late at night.

That leads to reason number two. Apparently you care almost as much as I do about these numbers. While Josh was plugging away at football, I worked on baseball and tennis (you've got to do something during an eight-hour bus ride to Meadville, Pennsylvania). We recently added those files to the web site (look for the links on the right-side navigation after the current season statistics). Less than 24 hours after adding them, I started receiving emails from alums who were remembering their games, astounded they were still on the top-20, 30, -50, or whatever list, and even happier to see their exploits remembered.

The reason we worked so hard on baseball and tennis was because of the record-breaking efforts of Jake Thomas, Matt Dodaro, Adam Van Zee, and Jay Horrey (read about their exploits for baseball and tennis). Now before you ask, of course we'll be adding the other sports during the summer and fall (all the soccer stats I can get my hands on will be heading home with me this summer in an attempt to put all of those records up before the start of the 2007 season). And look for that football project that Josh just completed a week ago to go on the site soon.

So now we can all admit to our addiction to numbers and start our counseling group for fans who just want to know what the Wabash baseball team's record is in Tuesday games when the temperature is above 50 degrees and the wind is blowing between 10-20 mph (and no, I don't have that figure....... yet!).

Photos (top right) Jake Thomas set the Wabash single season record for hits with his 59th last Saturday vs. Earlham.

Sophomore Jay Horrey (middle left) and senior Adam Van Zee (bottom right) broke the season mark for doubles victories on the tennis court this year.