I don’t know if there is anything in American life that coincides with the cycle of life as perfectly as baseball.
It begins in February, in the depths of winter. Or at least the depths of what winter used to be. Players and wannabe players pack their suitcases, kiss the wife and kids goodbye, jump in the car and head south.
South to Florida.
South to Arizona.
South to spring training.
Spring training isn’t what it used to be. Back in the day, back when baseball was the national pastime, players would show up after sitting all winter. They would need the first few weeks to lose winter fat and get into shape to play.
It was the end of one thing and the beginning of another, ends and beginnings that repeated themselves year after year after year. Rogers Hornsby was one of the original Hall of Famers and he described it perfectly.
Baseball’s year comes in four parts — spring training, the regular season, the playoffs and the offseason..
Today is the last day of the first part, the last day when all 30 teams and their fans can believe that this is going to be a wonderful year. Not that everyone thinks they’re going to the World Series or even the playoffs. For many of them, just the thought that their favorite team will be better than last year or their favorite player will be better than he has ever been before.
Tomorrow, some of those dreams start to die.
In a way, they have already. Philadelphia first baseman Rhys Hoskins injured his knee last week and won’t be playing at all this year. Mets pitcher Edwin Diaz was hurt in the World Baseball Classic and will miss the entire 2023 season.
But just as one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor, injuries to Hoskins and Diaz have created opportunities for other players to succeed.
Whether it’s Patrick Corbin in Washington or Gerrit Cole in Yankee Stadium, someone will throw the first pitch of the season at 1:05 p.m. There’s a great irony in the differing expectations of the two teams. Washington won the World Series in 2019 but is in the middle of a complete teardown and rebuild, while the Yankees haven’t won the Series since 2001 but are eternally optimistic that they will get back to where they once belonged.
Nowhere is there more optimism than San Diego, which has never won a World Series but has a payroll of superstars and is on the verge of great things.
Starting tomorrow, there will be baseball almost every day for the next seven months. It will all end with champagne spraying in one locker room somewhere as the 2023 champions celebrate.
The next day, even though the calendar says it’s the middle of autumn, winter will begin.
And we can sit at the window, staring out and waiting for spring.