Spring is the most joyous time of life.  The first sign of spring each year is that melodious phrase “pitchers and catchers report”.  Alas, I live near Lexington, KY so all I hear is the shrill whistles and blaring klaxons of “March Madness” and how bad the Cats got shafted in the tournament seedings.  The only seedings I want to hear about are how well the grass seed is doing at the baseball stadiums.

It has been written  that football is a religion in the South but I will tell you that Kentucky basketball surpasses that.  While we were out grocery shopping on Saturday, half, maybe more, of the people I saw were sporting UK (not the United Kingdom) gear of some kind.  I mostly don’t get a second glance when wearing an Atlanta Braves hat, but if I ever go out with my Florida Gators hat, I get all kinds of nasty looks.  Baseball fans tend to continue to be fans of the team they grew up watching or listening to on the radio.  I guess college sports fans are the same way, but it seems like all the Kentucky fans live near Lexington.

Thankfully, there is the Internet.  I can “watch” a game in my web browser and see the balls and strikes graphically represented.  I also do not have to listen to the inane blather of the announcers.  I often mute the sound when watching a game on TV because the announcers often aren’t even talking about baseball.  And what is it about showing the celebrities in the stands?  Or why do they show the guys in the dugout with a big ole chew who spit constantly?  And the sunflower seeds are not much better.  Keep the cameras on the field and let the game be the game.  Have we all become so ADHD that we must be entertained for the 30 seconds between pitches?  I must just be getting old and grumpy.  Okay, I’ve always been grumpy.

By September I will be sorta ranting about the season being too long and then November will roll around and I will start longing for February and March and for baseball to begin again.  Baseball doesn’t have the hype of “March Madness” or the spectacle of the Super Bowl, but it has the slow measured pace of life.  You get to see people living up to their potential or failing to.  You get to see people like the Cubbies fans who get disappointed nearly every year and keep hoping that this will be their year.  Or us (or is it we) Braves fans who have to live with teams just good enough to break our hearts every year, and we keep hoping too.  But spring and the start of a new baseball season brings to each of us new hope.

I can almost hear the National Anthem being sung and the home plate umpire calling out: “Play Ball!”