Unless and until Interpol’s Daniel Kessler is prepared to defend the glory of America’s National Pastime in the pages of a British daily, the following remarks by Editors sticksman Ed Lay to the Detroit Free Press’ Erin Podlosky will have to go unchallenged (link provided by Repoz and Baseball Think Factory).

Q: Do you have any plans for Detroit?A: I’ve already been to my favorite place, which is the Magic Stick. I don’t know. I’d quite like to go to the Detroit Tigers. I’d quite like to go and watch them play. I’m a bit of a baseball guy. They’ve got that new field.

Q: How did you become a baseball fan? Seems a little odd for a guy who grew up in Ipswich.

A: When I had a [crappy] job, I was trying to break the monotony by staying up really late and going out with my friends and stuff, and whenever I would get back home, they would have late-night sports on this TV channel. And it was invariably American sports because of the time delay. So I’d get in at midnight and there’s a game just starting, so I used to watch all sorts. Ice hockey was pretty good, but it’s very difficult to see. I had very bad reception on my telly so you could never see the puck. So I settled for baseball because it’s boring enough to send you off to sleep and you don’t really miss anything if you do fall asleep for a bit and then wake up. It’s still going on and not much happened. Great boredom sport.

Q: What’s your favorite team?

A: For some reason, I was quite into the Arizona Diamondbacks. I don’t really understand why. All my different favorite teams are in different cities. My favorite football team is the Chicago Bears because I used to have a Chicago Bears top; it was a picture of a teddy bear holding a football running along on my Chicago Bears jersey. So I followed them. Then I have the Toronto Maple Leafs because I don’t really understand why they’re called the Maple Leafs and not the Maple Leaves. So I dig them.