On Valentines Day, a day of two words, my wife always wants to hear three words. I say them, but my mind is thinking of those four words- Pitchers and catchers report. She knows and understands.
My affliction is shared by many. Fantasy baseball magazines are on the shelves and players are already showing up to camps in the best shape of their lives. Some players did pilates, or wave pools, heck, Adam Dunn even went the extra mile and swung some bats. Some lost weight, some gained muscle, some...table muscle
Be careful though, at this time last year, Manny Ramirez was in the best shape of his life and held the dreaded 'sleeper' status. Now, we know why he was in the best shape of his life.
Mark Prior, Ben Sheets, and Brandon Webb have not had surgery yet, but Rich Harden took up the cause of the perennial surgicals (shuddup spellchecker, they know what I mean!) by having season ending surgery already.
We are three weeks away from the opening of spring training. A place where we realize that being in the best shape of your life means squat. Their shape is replaced by the questions- Can you hit? and Can you get people out?
Later in spring training we will have our important fantasy drafts.
Heaven on a stick!
A room full of us geeks and all one like mind. A room where everybody else 'gets us'. It is where the months of pondering, thinking and studying come to fruition. We now have our team. The team that we'll praise and cuss. The team that'll only half be there by the end of the year, but all 30 carry our hopes before real play starts.
A little later, the real season. Opening Day has been replaced by Asian openings and an ESPN night game.
Major League Baseball found a way to take the magic away for fiscal reasons.
Screw you, Joe Fan!
But, it's all good. It's baseball, no matter how they wish to start it up.
For the wives that are reading this, the love affair has been going on for over 100 years.
In an effort to persuade more females to subscribe to their newspaper in the late 1800's, a survey question was asked of women.
The question was, 'If there were one thing you wish had never been invented for your man, what would it be?
The landslide winner was- 'The Ball'.
The women wrote that the ball interfered with their men's chores and work.
Little did they know that the ball, a century later, would take over some of their men's minds as well.