ERIC BYRNES, A's outfielder

The A's outfielder is no stranger to the diamond. Or the oval. As in office.

HIDDEN TALENT: Naming The Presidents

Man over-bored: Jason Hart (former minor-league teammate) and I were on a 15-hour car ride from spring training in Phoenix to Midland, Texas. We got bored, and somebody had given me, as a birthday gift, these placemats with the presidents on them. I'm a big history buff -- I was a history major at UCLA. So I said, "Ya know what? I'm gonna learn all 43 presidents and see how long it takes me." It ended up taking a half-hour before I nailed them all. 

Rainman:  When people hear about it the first time, they'll be like, "No way!"  They'll just start randomly tossing out numbers and nobody believes that I'm right when I come up with the presidents.  But sure enough they'll find a way to figure it out. 

Brain freeze:  I just recently got stumped for the first time -- Channel 5 did something back at home (Woodside, Calif.) -- and I froze up on the 36th president. It's obviously easy. It's Lyndon B. Johnson. But Ford just immediately came out.

X's and O's: I use different devices. The 20th president was James A. Garfield, so every time I think of the 20th president, I think of Garfield the Cat. I have a buddy whose name is Ryan Hayes. Well, the 19th president was Rutherford B. Hayes. Martin Van Buren was the 8th, so I'll think of Van Buren Street in San Francisco. I just kind of learned like that -- I attach them to little personal things.

U can do eeeet: A lot of people are amazed, but it's something anybody can do if they wanna sit down for an hour and try to figure it out. It's a lot easier than you think.