Sunday, February 8, 2009

The Three Greatest Words in the English Language.

It's that Weekend. Yes that one. The one where there is no baseball. There is no football.
(Please don't try to argue that the Pro Bowl is football!)

Enthusiastic baseball and football fans plan for this weekend. It becomes the time when long 
put off projects rise to the top of the to do list. We suddenly have time to fix that toilet
that's been running constantly since the third game of the World Series. It's time to caulk those
drafty widows. It's time because there is time.

There is no football. There is no baseball.

Don't tell me about basketball and ice hockey. Both cannot be watched on television with the
same level of excitement of baseball and football. 

So that brings us to our headline, "The Three Greatest Words in the English Language."

"Pitchers and catchers," baby. "Pitchers and catchers."

For baseball fans, Winters doesn't start on December 23rd. It starts the moment of the final
out of the World Series.

When the Phillies' Brad Lidge struck out Eric Hinske of Tampa Bay to clinch the Series for
Philadelphia. There was pure ecstacy and at the same time deep despair. For in Winning, there is 
losing. 

The season ends and thus begins the long winter of our discontent.

While meteorological winter won't end for six weeks, the hope that abounds with a new season is merely
days away for baseball fans. It will come not when Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig arises from his
burrow to announce six more weeks for Barry Bonds. It comes when one dares to utter the words,
"Pitchers and catchers."

The start of baseball's spring training is just days away. The first players to report will be pitchers and
catchers. Soon after position players will report.

The cold will be just as cold. The snow will continue to fall. But it seems just a bit easier to cope
when you know that in Florida and Arizona, grown men have begun practicing the game of boys.

For fans of teams that both won and lost last season, hope springs eternal with spring training.