Yesterday, the very first MLB spring training game took place. It was a Cactus League matchup between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the defending world champion San Francisco Giants.
The Giants won the game by a score of 7-6, and with that, it is now officially baseball season.
The month of February has long been one of the dullest when it comes to sports. In recent years, having the Super Bowl has helped spice the February sports world up a bit in the first week or so, but after that, it’s a sports wasteland.
There is no more football. Basketball and hockey are in the dog days of their long seasons. College basketball’s regular season is so meaningless that, with the exception of the die-hard college basketball fan, nobody pays attention until March.
Seriously, if the majority of NBA front offices didn’t lose their minds at the trade deadline this past week, sports radio and television shows would have nothing to talk about.
That, however, all changes today, as the rest of the MLB’s preseason schedule gets underway.
Sure, football has taken the country by storm over the past 30 years or so, thus supplanting baseball as America’s de facto sport of choice, but it’s foolish to think that the original “America’s Pastime,” will ever go the way of other sports in this country, such as boxing.
America still has a love affair with baseball, even if it lusts for the fast-paced violence of football. There is still something special about the words “pitchers and catchers,” that “quarterbacks and centers” could never capture.
There’s nothing that can compare to a father and son finding that lone 60-degree day that always seems to sneak into the final month of winter, grabbing two mitts and having a catch, not even tossing the pigskin as the leaves begin to fall.
It’s almost as if spring training is the sporting world’s very own Groundhog Day.
Spring training is as close to perfect as professional sports can get. It’s the only preseason, in any sport, that anyone cares about. The games don’t matter, but for fans watching a spring training game, they are witnessing the best players play a beautiful sport, where the stresses of wins, losses and playoff races are replaced by eternal optimism.
Now is not the time for Cardinals fans to worry about Adam Wainwright’s injury, but rather watch for any glimpses that Jaime Garcia will take the role of staff ace by storm. Spring is no time for Yankees fans to lament losing out on Cliff Lee, but for them to watch as A.J. Burnett begins his Comeback Player of the Year campaign.
Fans in Milwaukee should be feeling hope that Zack Grienke and Shawn Marcum are the missing pieces that will take the Brewers to the promised land, not if and when the team will end up losing Prince Fielder.
Giants fans shouldn’t worry about returning to the World Series at the moment, but rather relish the fact that until a new champion is crowned, they can say something they haven’t been able to say since Willie Mays covered every inch of that spacious center field in the Polo Grounds: the Giants are defending champs.
Spring training is every baseball fan’s chance to enjoy the game they love, whether they are a fan of a World Series favorite in Philadelphia, or a small market team that seems to be continuously rebuilding in Kansas City, before the harsh realities of a gruelingly long season, trades, injuries and looming free agencies splash cold water on our faces and wake us from our baseball fantasies.
So today, I will be on my couch, cold beer in hand and feet up, watching my beloved Mets take the field for the first time in 2011. I will not be worrying about Johan Santana’s injury, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran being in the final years of their contracts, or if Jason Bay can play in New York. The words Bernie, Madoff, ponzi and scheme will not only not be spoken in my house today, but they will be the farthest thing from my mind.
Today, I will be simply watching baseball, and if it’s warm enough, I may even play catch with my son.
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