Some form of
spring training opens this week, not games, just pitchers and catchers tossing
a ball to one another. The danger for
players and fans alike is rushing things.
By all means,
let the Cubs and their nation fall victim to repeat dreams, the sooner the
better for it to hurt the worse when things don’t line up like in 2016; been
there in 2005, done that in 2006. But
for those of us without World Series fantasies, it’s better to take things one
step at a time, though Lord knows it’s hard.
Chicago is in
the midst of a climate-change February, and, by that I mean it feels like
mid-March outside. If it were mid-March,
I’d be baseball antsy already, wanting the season to start. This is why softball was such a game-changer
for me—it did start in mid-March, or the third week thereof, on ice-cold fields
during high school and sun-drenched ones in Florida for college. A person can get used to all sorts of
extremes if a bat and ball are involved.
But now
Clare and I have to move on. My daughter
has checked on the cost of airfare to Arizona and quickly discovered it’s a
real wedding-budget breaker. Me, I’ve
just spent, oh, twenty minutes at baseballreference.com looking up the career
stats of such immortals as Denny O’Toole, Dave Lemonds and and Ken
Frailing. If you know any or all of
those onetime pitchers, you’re in the same boat as I am, and my daughter. So, remember, pace yourself.
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