“There are only two seasons – winter and Baseball.” – Bill Veeck

Ok then, now that the whole “football” diversion is done for the year, we can get back to something important: Baseball!

Don’t get me wrong, I love me some football and I spend every Sunday in the fall glued to my couch watching any game that’s on, but football is just a game.

Baseball is Life.

Every spring, as the days start to get longer and the promise of spring begins to get closer and closer, the seeds are planted. The season begins, in earnest, usually with some snow still on the ground somewhere, with every team (basically) still in the hunt. Except the Astros, obviously.

Once the season begins, it’s a daily slog of 162 games that takes us through the spring, into the summer, through August and into the fall. Baseball players play nearly every day. The season is filled with ups and downs – every team will win 60, every team will lose 60; what matters is what you do with the other 40 games – surprises and streaks. And sometimes it rains and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Just like life. Only with more hot dogs.

And also, just like life, it’s a game in which you keep individual stats and make your own way in the world, but you can’t win without a team behind you.

Then, in the fall, hopefully you reap the harvest of wins and as the days begin to shorten again the best teams battle it out to see who will be the last one standing.

Then we pack it up and wait out the winter.

“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

This week marked the beginning of Spring Training for all 30 major league teams. The Mariners opened their camp in Arizona while my Philadelphia Phillies got underway in Clearwater, Florida.

And once again, hope springs eternal.

Well, kind of. At least it does for the Mariners anyway. For the Phils? Not so much.

It’s a rough time to be a Phillies fan, a time that Mariners fans know all too well, unfortunately.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was super excited about the start of spring training. My team was among the best in the league. In 2007, we started a run of five consecutive division championships. In 2008, we won the World Series.

It was a great year and a great parade, attended by me and about three million of my closest friends. Then, though we didn’t know it at the time, things started to go south when the general manager, Pat Gillick, who had previously worked with the Mariners during their 2000-2001 record setting heyday, retired and they handed the keys over to his assistant, Ruben Amaro, Jr.

The move worked about as well as when the Mariners went from Gillick to Bill Bavasi. Every season since 2008, the team has regressed.

Though I have been a fan my entire life, I have to admit, this year it is difficult to be excited. I have not worn a single shred of Phillies gear since they traded shortstop (and all-time Phillies hits leader) Jimmy Rollins in December.

The move was just such a thumb-in-the-eye to fans and didn’t address ANY of the problems that caused the team to fall to the cellar last season.

That’s right, from highly-feared Champs to laughing stock in just five short years!

I love the Phillies and will be rooting for the team, but I can’t support the organization or the management right now.

I don’t suffer fools.

Thats why this spring you may have seen me running around in a Mariners cap, as the Phils and Mariners are going in opposite directions.

After finally ditching Bavasi – who did to the M’s what Amaro did to the Phils – after the 2008 season, Seattle has made some moves, developed some talent and then went big in the free agent market.

Because of that, the M’s are on the verge of taking it to the next level. It’s taken five years to dig out of the hole Bavasi put them in, but it looks like this may finally be the year Seattle gets back to the playoffs.

Here’s hoping. There’s nothing more fun than a winning baseball team. It’s even more fun than a winning football team, because of the daily nature of the game.

While football is played only once a week, baseball is there every night, in case you need it.

And those nights should certainly be more fun here than in Philly.

But that’s life, right? Sometimes bad decisions take time to crawl out from under, but all it takes is some time, some effort and the knowledge that tomorrow is another game and we can always get ‘em next year.

Welcome back, baseball.

PLAY BALL!

“Nobody ever said ‘Work ball!’ They say “Play ball!’ To me, that means having fun.” – Willie Stargel