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Perhaps you ran in high school, but have since stopped completely, in lieu of machines at your local gym. Perhaps you run sporadically, given the right conditions: time, weather and interest. Perhaps you've never run at all. Regardless of your running experience or current discipline, everybody can use a little running inspiration to induce that extra mile, run or speed on a regular basis. How is that accomplished? Different strokes for different {running} folks.

You will look better!

Analyze the logistics: you are moving and therefore exercising the muscles in your body. By exercising those muscles consistently, you will achieve a substantial toned appearance. Toned bodies are attractive bodies! No matter how fast or slow you run (or walk, for that matter), consistency in activity will result in muscle definition and ultimately, a fit, healthy body. 

You will feel better!

Believe it or not, running will give you more energy. You think you feel tired because you work long hours and don't get enough sleep and that's partially true, but just like you theoretically use your mind every day at your job, school or otherwise, you need to use your body too. When you fit running into your daily schedule, you will become more productive because you are making time to exercise and simultaneously, you will feel the results of running and working out your body in a positive way with more energy to do other things that you enjoy.  

​You will {theoretically} eat better!

Effort equals results. As you begin running more consistently, you will quickly realize that the path to getting fit and maintaining your weight is a two-way street through exercise and diet. People often confuse the word 'diet' with 'dieting,' when in fact diet refers to what you eat on a regular basis, while dieting refers to consciously eating certain foods and restricting others for a fixed period of time to achieve a certain result, usually weight loss. Once you find a healthy balance of less calories in and more calories out by way of exercise, making healthy food choices will come naturally. You will want to eat less and better when you begin to achieve the desired results from running consistently, longer and faster. 

What if you couldn't run at all?

Although it might be reverse influential psychology, think about all the people in the world who are physically unable to run, due to weight, malnutrition or a physical handicap. Meanwhile you're sitting on your couch, watching TV and eating a bag of chips. (OK, maybe you're not doing that, but surfing the net constitutes for the same, mindless activity.) Your legs, muscles and body are meant to be used. Get after it! You might find yourself in a situation where you're not able to run one day too and you will wish that you had gone out running as much as you possibly could have, if you reach that point in time. Nothing like putting things into perspective, right?

Every culture around the world has superstitions for ringing in the new year. (Including the Chinese, although their calendar doesn't roll over until the lunar new year, which usually happens in late January or early February.) What all of these superstitions have in common is a belief that the things you do (or avoid doing) on the first day of the year set the pattern for all of the days that follow. 

On January 2, IHOP will be offering all-you-can-eat pancakes once again. The deal will last through January 27, 2013. You can get endless pancakes if you order them alone or add them to a meal.

There are probably some names missing from the final leaderboards that folks are interested in knowing where they ended up.  So here we go:

They didn't make the cut ...

James Jones (23): 89-100-89 ... he probably needed to crush the Cal League, and he didn't quite

Nick Franklin (21): 89-99-88 ... still very good for a shortstop young for his league, but not blowing the doors off the joint

Julio Morban (20): 81-106-87 ... remember he was two years younger than the average guy in High-A

Carlos Peguero (25): 77-108-85  ... he's what I call a "random-moon-shot" guy, but Seattle needs more than that from its corner OF spots

Steven Proscia (23): 76-106-82 ... see above, but substitute "third base"

Jabari Blash (22): 92-87-79 ... great fun to follow, but not really getting it done

Alex Liddi (23): 74-94-68 ... did not consolidate his gains from prior years

Vinnie Catricala (23): 77-80-57 ... he got messed around but good ... I don't dismiss three very good seasons leading up to this one, though

Carlos Triunfel (22): 60-81-41 ... still young but running out of chances

Francisco Martinez (21): 76-63-39 ... Z loves the tools, and still very young, but this year doesn't give one much hope

***

They didn't qualify ...

Casper Wells was 27 years old, and only had 95 PAs, so he doesn't make the list in two different ways, but when he played at Tacoma: 184-152-235

Alexy Palma is a 19-year-old who played only in Venezuela, but he slugged .510, OPS'd .901 and had as many walks as strikeouts: 157-138-196

Justin Smoak only had 85 PAs, but he re-learned some things at the plate: 151-101-153

Luis Rodriguez  is gone now, and was 32 years old, but he's still the master of Plate Skills: 137-107-144 ... Kawasaki took his spot

Luis Antonio Jimenez got his cup o'coffee, and it was deserved (if you back and look at his younger stats, but he also had a great year at Tacoma): 123-117-140

Nathan Melendres only got 97 PAs due to injury, but he's a toolsy guy with some pop who plays all over the diamond, and the organization seems to have taken a liking to him: 77-97-74