It's happy time

The beginning of baseball spring training is best savored after one has had to endure a long, cold winter. In New England, December is tolerable due to the Christmas and New Year holidays that one can look forward to and eventually enjoy (deer season is also nice). January is spent in a bit of the holiday afterglow. Recently there has been the added bonus of Patriots Super Bowl wins. After that, the only thing to look forward to in February is the day when pitchers and catchers report. The beginning of spring training that this day inaugurates makes March less intolerable. I consider March the most brutal of winter months; it's like extra time being tacked onto a prison sentence.
Now, in Berkeley spring is already in bloom and the worst that winter had to offer was rain and some occasional chilly nights. In some way the lack of suffering that one has to endure here during the winter takes away some appreciation of the dawn of spring training, at least for me. Boo hoo.

It's probably best to take Big Papi's lead:



"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."
- Rogers Hornsby

"It's the fans that need spring training. You gotta get 'em interested. Wake 'em up and let 'em know that their season is coming, the good times are gonna roll."
- Harry Caray