Spring fever

If I could get paid to write about the sport of baseball year round, I would.  Granted I would go crazy between the months of Novembeard and February, but there is always light at the end of the tunnel.  February brings Spring Training and Spring Training brings on the hopes and dreams of every baseball fan that this is their teams year (excluding fans living in places like Pittsburgh, Arizona, Cleveland, Kansas City, and Baltimore [I kid because I have been there for dark days of a sports organization]). 

Opening day is just over a month away and I cannot wait.  I have always enjoyed watching baseball whether it is in person or on the television.  It's the only time you can sit around for two to three hours watching the television and feel like you are there thanks to technology that picks up even the quietest conversations.  You can hear the crack of the bat, the thump of the ball hitting the catcher's mitt, the excited crowd rise to it's collective feet when the ball hits the sweet spot of a bat and goes flying three hundred fifty feet the opposite way.  The only thing that is really missing is the smell of spilled overpriced beer and crushed peanut shells. 

Think about opening up the windows to the living room the next time you watch a baseball game and let the fresh air creep into the room.  It adds to the experience.  It smells like fresh cut grass and if you hear a bird chirp here or there, it makes it that much better.  Come on, it beats going and watching a game in a crowded and dark bar with recycled air (but that too is great).  What I'm talking about is making it feel like you are there without being there. 

Some may look at this post as over exaggeration, but it's a true statement.  It's fine to watch a game in a bar with friends and beer, but every once in a while I just like sitting at home with the windows open in the middle of the afternoon and a huge glass of beer and soaking it all up.  Throughout my four years of college, I skipped classes if Opening Day was in the middle of the week.  Each year all I did was open the windows and got lost in the game.  I didn't care about class that day. 





And it was glorious.