Just a Parboiled Minute!

Ah Springtime, it sits there just out of our reach here in the blear, February doldrums, with its promise of refreshing showers and pleasant temperatures. And what more apt harbinger of this "verdant spiral" could there be, I ask you, than 62 men in pajamas lying in the grass with their legs up in the air? Yes it's Spring Training again! First, for my thoughts on experiencing baseball season overseas may I direct you to this post from last year (have I been doing this a year already? Good God...). As for the present, I'm filled, as ever, with the sense of hope and excitement that is the flip side to the "wait 'til next year" let down of having your home team's season end in September. Of course nothing's been proven yet, and even on Opening Day, everything accomplished in Spring Training is still just meaningless exhibition (the Reds of late have seemed to fair much better when the pressure's off and they're in Florida, for example), but the simple fact that right now anything's possible is enough to get me all giddy. It's like in school when your teacher informs you at the beginning of the course that, at the moment, you all have A's, and it's just a matter of you keeping it there. In Spring Training, everyone's a World Series MVP, even David "Shitty Batter" Ross! Hold on a second... David Ross? Mr. Mendoza Line? MVP? I must be crazy, right? Well, turns out baseball season can have that effect on people...