Spring Drags Eternal

This is the worst part of the baseball season. Spring training has been dragging on for about five weeks now. All of the stories about who's going to make the starting rotation, who's looking good (no one ever talks about who's looking bad), who's going to make the club and who's not, who has options left and who doesn't, and what the batting order will be have been hashed out until there is absolutely nothing more to say. Everyone knows that Mike Cameron will miss the first 25 games. Everyone knows that Yovanni Gallardo will join the rotation sometime in mid-April. Everyone knows that Prince Fielder is a vegetarian. Everyone knows that Jason Kendall will bat ninth. Everyone knows that Rickie Weeks is the in-vogue pick for a breakout season (we don't talk about that other thing - and oh yeah, by the way, has anyone noticed if Corey Hart is around?) We're all counting the days, raring to go. But it's still more than a week away. Nine more dreary, sloppy, slushy days.

Back in February, ten days before the opening of spring training, winter smacked us upside the head. It's done the same ten days before the regular season. This morning, my yard looks just like it did in those pictures. I've never needed a winter to end and a baseball season to start more than I do this year. I'm ready to go. Nine more days until Opening Day; the best part of the baseball season.