Open The Gates

Today is proof that Spring is here. Yea, it could be a bit warmer and it will be. It's sunny, slightly breezy, and just picture perfect outside. I love that warm weather is on the way, and I'm impatient that it's not here yet. Also this week marks the date that my dad passed away some 31 springs ago.

So some bitter to go with some sweet, but there's always one thing for me each spring that adds the extra pinch of sugar, to make it all go down a lot easier. It's the opening of the gates that have been shut all winter long.

Friday the big, mighty, ornate gates of Progressive Field will swing open for another baseball season. I have been to the last 4 opening days with the Indians and it's one of the highlights of my spring. My dad used to take me to opening day as a kid. Great memories there, I won't bore you with the details, but you can imagine. A young boy with his dad, out of school at the Indians game. It doesn't get much better.

It was then I learned that few things signify the beginning of something good better than baseball. Baseball starts before the bud, and goes well beyond the bloom. It can be cold at the start, hot in the middle and cool again at the end, but overall it's averages just about perfect.

From now through the fall, there will be baseball played in every single town in America every single night. Major and Minor League, Connie Mack, AAU, Pony and Little League, Tee Ball too. Coach pitch, machine pitch, fast and slow pitch, baseball and softball, they will play and we will go. No other sport can honestly day that.

It's baseballs reflection of life that grabs us the most. It's every day, just like life. You win and you lose, no way around it in baseball. While most of us know how to win, baseball teaches us how to lose with grace, and that lesson is becoming more valuable with every generation that comes to pass. Because life has its ups and downs, and it's best to learn that now.

But maybe its greatest allure of all? It's an individual-team sport. Just like life again. Sometimes no matter how great your team is, you must do some things on you own. That's the game of baseball in microcosm.


Baseball brings the warm, the sun
The longer days, and the fun.
It's more than merely a game
Simply put, baseball is life in frame.

The beauty is in its simplicity.....

It's putting bat to ball...that's all.