Spring

January and February are always my toughest months. It is crazy.

Car trouble always hits during January and February. Illness usually hits during those months. Most family crises happen during the early part of the year.

Maybe it is because there is no baseball.

Somehow I can last through October because of the post season and November and December due to the hot stove. Lots of baseball happens during those months. January is a barren desert with an occasional oasis. February is similar, except the handful of stories about who is arriving in Arizona and Florida.

During January and February I have nowhere to hide. There are no fresh statistics in which I can hide my head. Even the winter leagues dry up after the first of the year. After the hot stove this year, the Cub roster is pretty much set.

Oh sure, the writers can talk about the crowded outfield and speculate about the pitching. There may be a surprise as there was last year when Marquis Grissom retired during the last week of spring, leaving a spot for Angel Pagan. There may be a last minute trade or two, like when we sent John Koronka to Texas last year. Still, those things generally happen in March. Barring a spring time injury (don’t say Wood or Prior), the Cubs pretty much have their twenty-five ready to go.

As I write this, according to www.bleedcubbieblue.com, there are four days, six hours and fifty minutes before the first spring training game. For one, I am holding my breath and waiting to hear the sound of the first pitch, and listening for the umpire to shout “play ball”.

Of course, spring training games are not real baseball. It is thirty-six days, five hours and now fifty-two minutes before the first pitch of real baseball. But March brings us closer to reality. I can live with spring training games until real baseball rolls around. I have made it through the past one hundred plus days since seeing the Cardinals pummel the Tigers. Four days are nothing.

That is four days, six hours and forty-three minutes. And counting.