They are four words that remind us of greatness to come: pitchers and catchers report. A fresh start, a new season, another chance. There is no end to the maybes in baseball, because any team can win in this era. A long, cold winter, colder than most in recent memory, is giving way to renewed optimism.
Charles Fountain described Spring Training as sunshine - therapeutic, inspiring, been-too-long-without-ya sunshine. The beginning of Spring Training each year has always been a moment of hope, a reassurance that the landscape of snow and gray skies and barren trees will soon pass, and the world will again be green.
Baseball is pristine; the smell of the fresh-cut grass; the sight of a bright blue, cloudless sky that hurts to look into. The sound of those first cracks of the bat and pops of the glove in Florida and Arizona trumpet the beginning of the 2010 season. Days are getting longer, and warmer, and it is only a matter of time before the boys of summer take the stage at baseball’s cathedrals.
As Mark Newman of mlb.com wrote, this is the time when the great third-base coach in the sky signals that it’s time for the so-called “offseason” to head home, time for Major League Baseball to take over as it has done since before the Wight Brothers flew. The Super Bowl was the last truly meaningful matter of action in a long winter that lets baseball players, managers and fans regenerate their energy. The Lombardi Trophy has been handed over. The national pastime owns the map again. It's time to say goodbye to football and settle in for the magical marathon.
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