Play Ball!

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring"
-Rogers Hornsby, MLB Player 1915-1937

Beginning with the final out of the previous season's World Series, baseball fans spend the next five months pining for the return of the game they love. This offseason longing process, however, comes in stages. First, they spend up to a month (pending on the success level of their own favorite team) either basking in the glory of or sulking over the previous season. After that, the fans anxiously await a magic day in the middle of February when pitchers and catchers report to spring training, and the road to baseball season officially begins. A few days later, pitchers and catchers are joined by the rest of their teammates. What follows is the spring training season, a time when young players try to earn their roster spot in the major leagues, grizzled veterans try to prove they still "have it", and baseball fanatics' hunger for the game they love begins to get slightly filled. These fans anxiously pore over their team's box score in the newspaper every morning, seeing what hitters they will be able to count on in the clutch and which pitchers might be called upon to be the team's fifth starter or key middle reliever. These games, however, don't really matter. They simply fill that void we have until Opening Day. Opening Day is not simply the first day of baseball season. It is a chance for hope in the hearts of all players and fans alike. Every team starts with a record of 0-0, every hitter has yet to record an out, and every pitcher has an ERA of 0.00. Hitting slumps, losing streaks, and meltdowns from last year are forgotten. For each and every team, "This is our year". It is a chance for the Yankees to see if all the money they spent in the offseason will pay off, and a chance for the Cubs to foolishly think they have a chance at winning the World Series. Opening Day means that as fans, we get to travel on an emotional roller coaster ride for the next six months (or seven, if we are lucky enough to make the playoffs) as we live and die with the athletic performance of twenty-five men that we feel a personal connection to, despite the fact that they will never meet us. Opening Day allows us to again experience the thrill of going to the ballpark and get that rush of adrenaline when, for the first time this year, we walk through the tunnel from the concourse to our seats until the enormous inside of the ballpark opens up in front of us like a canvas. The catcalls of the beer vendors, the smell of the hot dogs, and the perfectly manicured infields welcome us back. Finally, after this long wait, we are home.
Mike Sobolewski, ND2011
Social Foundations of Coaching