It's The Holidays, But It's Also Just Eight Weeks Until Spring Training!

Yes! It's true! It is only eight weeks until pitchers and catchers report for Major League Baseball Spring Training, which is the most exciting time of the year for baseball, when every team has a chance, however unlikely, to win the World Series. Last year, I thought my South Side heros, the Chicago White Sox, were on their way to the playoffs. However, once the regular season began, they were just horrible, and wound up losing over 100 games. And since they have now lost Tim Anderson, their last remaining All-Star, this off-season, things are looking even grimmer for the coming season. The same goes for the Colorado Rockies, my adopted hometown team, who were expected to be bad last year, and were, also losing over 100 games. So far, they have made no moves to improve during the off-season, and so things are looking bad for them this year, too. Even the Chicago Cubs (if you happen to be a North Sider), who were in the playoff race until the final week of last season, lost Cody Bellinger - their National League Comeback Player of the Year - to free agency, calling into question how their season will go this coming year. But, as I have said, during spring training, every team has a chance to win it all, at least in the minds of the fans. And it all begins eight weeks from today, down in Arizona and Florida. Hooray! The photograph above, by the way, was taken back in 1996, in Port St. Lucie, Florida, during a New York Mets - Detroit Tigers spring training contest. It was the first and last time I saw a game there. At the time, it seemed like that ballpark was in the middle of nowhere, and fans walking into the park were in danger of being attacked by alligators. But, of course, that was a quarter century ago. Maybe, by now, they have relocated all those alligators. Perhaps some day, I will check it out.