As I sit here in the Daily office, I sometimes wonder how to put forth a good effort when I finally head into the working world.

There are so many avenues I can take to try to help myself for the future.

Then again, I could just try to hone my baseball skills and earn six or seven million bucks a year. Now, if I could only hit the ball…

Riding off into the Sunset?

It seems like these days every baseball player wants to look at their 401K plans with the help of Mass Mutual or some other firm of the same type.

After stalwarts Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn announced that they would hang up their spikes at the end of this season, slugger Mark McGuire assessed his future last week.

The Cardinals superstar had told sources he was befuddled that he could be making the amount of money he is for the performance he has been providing.

That’s all baseball needs at this point.

If Big Mac goes on the shelf after the season, that will make three of the legends who helped bring the game back to fans after the strike of 1994-95.

Ripken helped with his “Iron Man” games-played streak, McGwire now holds the single-season home run record and Gwynn has been the best pure hitter over the past two decades.

Now all that needs to be thrown in the retirement mix is a Greg Maddux or Pedro Martinez and we’ll have every facet of the game covered.

All in all, I hope Big Mac stays because baseball’s already losing too much this year.

You know, with all this talk swirling around, maybe I should retire. However, there is that whole poor college student deal. (Sigh) I guess I have to keep at it for another 35-40 years.

The only thing I’ll retire to today is this week’s edition of…

Absurd Predictions

As the first week of July has passed us by, Iowa natives (or impostors such as myself) have noticed that summer has come into full effect with its high humidity and heat indexes.

Nowadays, it’s getting more and more stiffling to ride those bicycles around during the day.

Usually, cycling is seen more as a recreational activity than a sporting competition. However, for the next three weeks all eyes will focus on the tiny country of France as one of the most grueling tests of stamina continues.

The Tour de France started on Saturday with one of America’s own looking to add to his already legendary status in this event.

Two-time defending champion Lance Armstrong is trying to obtain his third straight title after fighting off testicular cancer.

According to most publications, there aren’t many obstacles between him and obtaining the yellow jersey for the third straight year. In any other style of prediction, I would have chosen him to win, but I have to stay true to my cause.

I’m not a big cycling aficionado, which means I’m going way over my head on this week’s pick. So, with the help of the Daily’s creative department, I’ve selected a winner out of the 187 participants.

Entering Tuesday’s third stage of the event, Columbia’s Victor Hugo Pena will be in 32nd place, 48 seconds behind leader Marc Wauters of Belgium. By the time the riders roll down Paris’ Champs Elysees on July 29, Pena will don the yellow jersey as this year’s champion.

Who knows? Maybe with this new source of outside help, absurdity can make a little more sense in the future.

Jonathan Lowe is a senior in meteorology from Kansas City, Mo.