The (Third) First Sign of Spring

I’m watching the first televised game of the Chicago Cubs on WGN (a preseason game with the White Sox) as is my custom. Also as is my custom I’m drinking beer and eating a bag of salted-in-the-shell peanuts. I’ll drink some more beer and eat another bag of peanuts in three weeks on opening day of the regular season. I’m not sure when or how this custom began, but it’s been going on for at least a dozen years. When I was teaching full-time I generally was finished in class by early afternoon, so was able to come home and watch the games. I recall at least on one occasion letting my class go half an hour early so I could make the start of a first game telecast.

I’m not necessarily a Cubs fan, not necessarily a fan of any particular club. My baseball allegiances have always been determined by proximity. When I was in my early teens, I was a fan of the Milwaukee Braves because the Wichita Braves were a minor league franchise of the Milwaukee team, and my little team was also the Braves and our uniforms were facsimiles of the major and minor league clubs’ uniforms. So I was a Braves fan. There was only one baseball game on TV each week (The Game of the Week) and it was only occasionally a Braves game, so most of my following was done via the box scores in the newspaper. When I was in college I was only 30 miles from Kansas City, we got Kansas City TV and radio stations, so I was able to follow the Royals, and for five or six years in the ‘70s became a Royals fan. For one season I lived in Minneapolis, just 10 minutes from the old Twins’ park in Bloomington, so for that year I was a Twins fan. When I got to Iowa City in the late ‘70s I could get all of the Cubs games on WGN TV or radio (back when Harry Caray was in his prime drunkenness) and so became a Cubs fan. But again, not a fan in the usual sense of the term, more of a casual fan, a proximate fan, a tele-fan. A fan that needs some reason to bide away an afternoon drinking beer and eating a bag of peanuts.

The (First) First Sign of Spring

It’s still low-20s overnight and upper-30s to low-40s for highs. And there is still snow in the forecast, and probably will be for another month or so. But this weekend saw the first sign of spring (or at least the first first sign of spring) – pitchers and catchers (and any other players who want to join them) report to MLB Spring Training this weekend in Florida (Citrus League) and Arizona (Cactus League). In two weeks, the spring games begin. And in less than six weeks, the regular season – 162 games plus post-season – begins. For some it’s the blooming of the crocuses and daffodils, for others it’s the return of the robins. For me it’s the arrival of Spring Training and the promise of a long and lazy summer of daily following box scores.

Listening to Spring

Two inches of snow fell overnight, and this morning I cranked up the snow blower and in short order cleared the drive and walks, though I probably could have done it just as easily and in only a bit more time with a shovel, it being a light snow. But this afternoon I’m thinking of spring, listening to spring, listening more specifically to Spring Training, listening to the first radio broadcast of the season, appropriately the world champion San Francisco Giants against the Arizona Diamondbacks, John Miller doing the play-by-play for San Francisco’s KNBR 680. John says the sun’s out in Scottsdale, only a few clouds, but cool at 62°. It’s a cold 27° here in Iowa City. But it sounds right now very much like spring.