A Shout And A Song

"I'm going to go to spring training with a shout and a song, singing merrily as I go along."--Fay Vincent, 1990

While Commissioner Vincent was probably happier that year than most that spring training had started, due to the delay caused by a lockout, the sentiment is one that lingers with baseball fans across the country and, indeed, around the globe today.  For it's finally that day of days, the beginning of spring, when we hear that wonderful phrase:  Pitchers and catchers report.

It's kind of an artificial deadline, to be sure.  The Cardinals have had most of their pitchers already in camp and going through throwing programs.  The catchers have arrived as well, with Yadier Molina making it in yesterday according to the indispensable Bird Land.  But it's still a day we can circle on our calendars and know that, for whatever the weather outside, winter's reign is doomed.  The sunny pictures and highlights from one camera stationed way up in the stands whet our appetite, giving us just enough to get by while leaving us wanting more.

It's a time for our renewal.  You can decide if it's coincidental that the renewal of the game comes as Easter looms, that the case could be made spring training is the Lent of baseball, helping us to prepare ourselves for what is to come.  Hey, they both last about six weeks--proof enough for me that baseball is Heaven-sent.

The pop of the mitt.  The smell of the grass.  Baseball is back!  And, just think, there's only two weeks until the first games are played!

On a more prosaic note, the above Bird Land link makes reference again to Juan Gonzalez, who Yadier is raving about.  It's spring, so you have to be optimistic, and you have players like Molina and Pujols being very excited about the shape he's in, but until Gonzalez gets to camp and gets some at-bats, there are going to be a lot of naysayers, and while I'm not one of them, I'm not terribly excited about his chances either.



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