In the next few days, across Major League Baseball pitchers and catchers will have their first formal meeting of the season. In bygone eras, this was the first sign of baseball since the Fall Classic and, all across America, everyone waited for the national pastime to recapture their hearts.
In this modern age of constant coverage and year-round training, this day does not hold the same universal sentimentality. However, to true baseball enthusiasts, this first sign of baseball rekindles the spirit of the young and old alike.
Spring training meant so much to me as a child growing up near Milwaukee. Every year, despite what Punxsutawney Phil had to say, the first sign of spring always came around the third week of February.
Reading the newspapers I would collect after my dad finished reading them, I would look at the extended coverage filling the sports page.
As my Milwaukee Brewers begin their season-long journey, trucks filled with gloves, bats, balls and uniforms exit Interstate 10 at 51st Street and continue to Maryville Baseball Park.
Armed with their tools, the Brewers embark on a quest. As each locker and storeroom is filled with supplies, more anticipation grows.
Will oft-injured but possibly dominant Ben Sheets bring it together for an All Star-caliber season that could lift the Brew-Crew to their first postseason since 1982?
Will manager Ned Yost make the right call and start longtime prospect Corey Hart in right field? Every day, as I pore over the official Brewers Web site, I am reminded of years gone by.
The first full-team practice for the Crew will be on Feb. 24, when venerated manager Yost will deliver what I’m sure will be an inspired preseason pep talk.
Players who have forged friendships, or at least working relationships, during 162 days in the dugout, will see each other for the first time in a third of a year.
Prospects who made waves in triple or even double-A leagues will get to test their mettle in hope of achieving every little leaguer’s dream … a spot on the opening day roster.
The first spring training game will be held on the first of March.
As the regulars shake off the rust of their off-season, speculation abounds among the many fans.
Media members will attempt to be the first to guess (or predict, if you listen to them) the opening day line-up card. Will the prospect we’ve been hearing about for years finally break through? Will last year’s top pick continue to surprise the front office?
As I am certain all you true Cards fans out there know, the anticipation can be as much fun as the season. How do you build on a championship year? Is $300 million enough to buy an elusive World Series (or even a post-season birth)?
I remember days sitting at my desk in fourth, sixth and even 12th grade, whispering to friends my latest opinion or question as the teacher vainly tried to go over the previous night’s reading.
Waking up half an hour before school started was never my forte, but, during spring training, I would be up with the sun (maybe the sun didn’t rise until an hour before school in Milwaukee, but still) to check the box score. “There you have it, yet again,” I would exclaim to my sister. “This guy was an undrafted free agent two years ago, and he got two hits and an RBI for the second time in two games. I had a feeling about him.”
Whether or not I had ever heard of this magical man, this man who was laughing in the face of enormous odds, I felt a special bond with him. Coming out of the proverbial left field, he seemed more magnificent then even the multi-million dollar All-Stars. Scott Posednik, Brady Clark and all the others who have cracked the Brewers line-up have become instant fan favorites.
Who better to champion this phenomenon then St. Louis’ hero du jour, David Eckstein? Battling against perception the entire way, Eckstein won over the hearts of the folks in Anaheim, Calif., then St. Louis, to become the best performer on the sport’s highest stage.
As spring training comes to a close at the end of March, rosters will be set and the journey home will begin. The thought of our heroes returning to us in the cold of early spring warms our hearts to the core.
Hearing reports of the preparations for opening day, I can feel the warm sun of summer already.
Our players get ready for 162 days of competition and, as fans, we get ready for 162 days of emotion.
Whether we experience elation or despair, become crestfallen or encouraged, these men of the diamond, these boys of summer, will be with us.
Even when we turn away for several weeks during a vacation, when we come back, they will be there.
When the St. Louis Cardinals host the Milwaukee Brewers in the second home series of the season on April 13, I’ll be there.
