The nice weather of spring training is intoxicating. Sunrise at an empty ballpark is electrifying. Watching the ballplayers getting ready and running through drills is beyond cool. And then, just as you’re totally stoked, when the grills are sizzling and fans are settling in for the first pitch … you get a rather crappy game.
Hey, that’s the nature of the beast, especially on Day freakin’ One of the spring training schedule. If you come expecting crisp baseball you’re nuts. You just need to remember that bad baseball is better than good almost anything else and go with it.
So I went with it today, ignoring the fact that Tim Lincecum couldn’t get anyone out and that the defense was so bad that they didn’t have the error column lit up on the scoreboard. As I type this, it’s the top of the 8th inning and the Giants lead the Dbacks 7-4 in what has been a less than wonderful ballgame. But to dwell on that stuff would be to miss the point.
And the point is that baseball is almost back. That even if your weather sucks right now, you’ll be able to lounge in the warm spring air like these people sooner than you think. That even if a nice hot stew sounds best tonight, you’ll be jonesin’ for this kind of thing in no time. That you’ll soon be able to walk around looking like an utter fool in love with baseball. Wait, don’t do that. That’s just wrong.
It’s getting closer, my friends.
