Pitchers and catchers report to their spring training camps in Florida and Arizona today, marking the start of the 2024 Major League Baseball season. Of course, today is also both Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday, but I can't discuss all three in one blog post, and so had to choose the most important one - baseball. And hopes run high for baseball fans this time of year, although I heard on the WGN News at 9:00 the other night that fans of the Chicago White Sox, my South Side heroes, do not seem very optimistic this year, after the team lost over 100 games last season. New management, however, feels the team will be improved through subtraction, which is an interesting concept, to say the least. My adopted hometown team, the Colorado Rockies, had the worst season in franchise history last year, although attendance at Coors Field actually increased. The Rockies draw almost 3 million fans a year no matter how the team plays, simply because people love the ballpark. And so, of course, the owner has no interest in improving the team. Which is okay with Colorado fans as long as they are at the ballpark. However, in a telling statistic, only the Oakland Athletics and Miami Marlins have fewer television viewers than the Rockies. Fun is fun, but having to watch them lose on television? Forget it! As for the Chicago Cubs, the crosstown rivals of the White Sox, they have the best shot of the three to make the playoffs. Although they are, after all, the Cubs, and so there is no hope for them, either. Let's play ball!
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