Baseball, the true harbinger to spring

                                                                                         

 So, snowing stupid here today in Whitewood town....no school even for us office supply clerks, so it must be a bad storm. 

 Under normal circumstances, I have always been hands off when it comes to the weather. It is what it is.  There are two exceptions.  When I was bossman of assisted living, and my buildings had to run and be staffed 24/7 and snow created trauma for single mothers and everyone else.  So much sacrifice by so many...but I covered that in an article in Retirement Community News back around 1995.  Very few storms in 20 years did I take off....sometimes having to sleep on site.  The April 1 storm of 1997 is a blog in and of itself.  The other time weather matters is if I am on vacation.  Working 49 or 50 weeks a year, raising a family, the weeks on the beach every summer were solid gold.  Just don't ask Bradley.  If one year the weather sucked, the realization that another year of everything had to happen just to get back to that place was a depressing  disheartening thought.   Weather pressure.  Now, I travel once or twice a year, and the thought of spending that time and money and having marginal or worse weather....well, the stuff of personal nightmares and  suicidal ideation. 

Which brings me to Lou Gherig and Wally Pipp.  I love the Wally Pipp story and brought it to life at work recently when I went on the disabled list for a week.    The valuable supersub, Ms R replaced me.  I was quite sure I was going to be Wally Pipped.   Probably would have been except the aforementioned relief specialist doesn't want to go to work everyday....having too much fun in retirement.  I am almost there.  Can't wait.

Which brings me to baseball.   Opening Day is only some 22 days away.  It almost never snows on opening day and the weather, while chilly, and certainly too baseball-chilly for me, is usually reasonable.  I have to remind myself of that as the heat cranks and the world is white outside. (Imagine if snow were black or yellow--how awesome would that be?  or if it changed colors each season or storm?---that leads me to a larger philosophical question..wouldn't a more whimsical God make that happen?  My religious friend(s) hates that I ask such questions.  Just thinking like that makes me a bad person according to some. Maybe I am, maybe I am not.   I understand the gun control thing is hard to fix from above, but making snow neon pink or amber rose or some other color to entertain us sinning masses, that should be fun and an easy do...wouldn't you say? Scientists would have a field day too. They would be all in a tizzy doing studies and criticizing each other.

Turning water into wine has its merits, I guess, but if there is no food on the table, does it really matter?
Way too many people have no food.  Even a ballpark hot dog tastes good if you are really, really hungry....but I digress.

Baseball...the ebb and the flow.  Certainly it is not a Red Sox thing.  I could be as happy on a hot summer night sitting in Philadelphia, or New York or San Francisco just watching a game.  I have been to Chavez, the new park in SF, the old and new Yankee stadiums, Shea (for regular, world series and football Playoff game) Philly, Baltimore Camden Yards (rain out and an ugly blog waiting there), Pawtucket, Portland and Orleans and Chatham on the Cape.   Just last night, planning this year's excursion to Washington with my son to take in a Nats game and to have dinner at Ricciuti's....a family (real family to me), exquisite fine dining Italian restaurant.  Baseball and outstanding food, family I see not often enough............that sounds like the real deal for me.  It freakn' better not rain or I'll be pissed.

The stamps above, general issue by the US Postage Service.  You can have them both for 33 cents.  They are mint, original gum, never hinged yada yada.  Hard not to respect a stamp honoring the great game of baseball, whose opening day is the true Harbinger of spring.