The Reason for the Season

If you have never played, you don't know.

Never dug in a small trench with the front of your cleats, marking the spot you want to land your toe on at the end of your release? Never slid into second, the baseman's glove tapping your back as you stand up? Never had to wash grass stains out from diving for a pop-fly, even if you missed it? Then you have a mission: get out, and see the game so many love and embrace from the Spring to the Fall Classic.

Every sport has certain experiences that cannot be recreated except in a game. Beating the defense down the middle and getting the finger roll to fall while being fouled (because it was all the defense could do to stop you) defines the experience of basketball for many amateur hoopsters. Getting the "shake and bake" (for once!) to leave the defense looking left while you sprint right makes every football game from there on out a more valuable experience.

But, for me, nothing incites the same emotional response as baseball.

Watch the pitcher the next time you are lucky enough to make it out to a baseball game. Even before he takes his first pitch, he will probably stand on the mound, and just stare toward home. In those moments, when no stress exists to make the game a challenge, and the pitcher makes his first warmup throw, sheer glee (because happiness doesn't quite define the feeling) seems to emanate from the mound.

Baseball season has begun. Kids playing Farm League will be swinging for the fences. Professional baseball players from the minor leagues to the Majors (the difference in capitalization is no mistake) will as well.

Three games under my belt in the first two weeks of the season, and I couldn't have had more fun. Yes, every time I have gone the "home team" has lost, but who cares. I got to see a guy throw a baseball, which weighs 1/3 of a lb., at 90 miles per hour, only to have another player hit the ball with a stick, rocketing it 150+ feet in the air, where a fielder IDs the landing spot, and catches it 300 feet away from the hitter.

Newton would have loved this game. And, that, amongst many others reasons, just adds to the fun of it all.