Afterall, this Web log is named for the Stray Cast, which has snapped off the end of the outdoors column in the Sun-Times on Wednesdays since April 2, 2003.

Here's today's:

For Opening Day, my annual primer for sports-update people: The mound is not the bump. Players score runs, sabermetricians tally them. Frames are for windows, not innings. And the Angels are not the Halos. Those are as annoying as calling good fishermen ''hot sticks,'' walleye ''pike'' and largemouth bass ''bucket mouths.''