Spring is (almost) here. How do I know? Because pitchers and catchers reported to spring training this week. Growing up, my fanatical love for baseball caused me to celebrate this week like the beginning of spring, even though there was usually at least one more southern snow storm on the way, and a bunch of cold mornings. This week was a annual reminder that the days and nights of baseball were not far off .... the boys of summer were warming up at last.
Of course now that I live in Detroit, spring is a little farther away than it was growing up in South Carolina. It seems that Opening Day in Detroit usually has an about even chance of snow, which, ironically, is far greater than the Tigers chances of being close in September. New Tiger skipper Jim Leyland (who was old the last time the Tigers won a pennant) is looking to bring something new to the ballpark this year. Of course, who knows what it will be that he brings, and whether or not it will help.
The greatest thing about spring training? Everyone still has a shot. No one has yet been eliminated. The magic numbers are still almost seven months away.
Growing up in the south in the mid-80s must be like growing up in Detroit now. The Braves were perennial losers with no shot of getting better. (I can still recite batting orders from the Braves in the mid-80s, as well as a bunch of other useless information, but I can't seem to remember where I put my keys.) They had a bunch of guys who just could not get it done. Joe Torre, who won five rings with the Yankees, gave them the best shot, with a division championship in '82 and two second-place finishes that followed. Then came a stretch of six years with five managers where the Braves averaged finished 27 1/2 games out of first place. (That wasn't a one year low. That was the average. One year, it was 39 games out of first place.)
But each spring, we hoped for a miracle. We finally got in 1991, with the worst-to-first Braves who lost in the World Series. That miracle is now going for its fifteenth straight reccurrence. Which causes me to wonder when a miracle ceases to be a miracle? Perhaps the miracle of fourteen straight is greater than the miracle of of '91, the worst-to-first.
Which brings me to the Tigers. There's hope ... if only until April.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I honestly believe the Tigers have a legitamate shot at the division or wild card this year. But what do I know? I'm a Cubs fan!
I often wondered what your problem was.
Ah, yes, I can hear Ernie Harwell now . . . "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land."
So true about the remembered information and the "Where did I put the keys?"
Mom
Post a Comment