For those of us in northern climes, this is the toughest time of year. The limbs of the maples, oaks and dogwoods are still bare, and it will be a couple of months before we even start to see buds, let alone lusciously green leaves. The semi-frozen ground is still covered with snow in most places, and the sides of the road are littered with branches and small piles of the sand that the plows have been spreading through the season to keep things from becoming too slippery. The temperatures still dip into the teens, and when the wind blows, it chills your cheeks and causes your eyes to tear.
Needless to say, these sorts of conditions often compel people to start dreaming of times when we can start wearing shorts and polo shirts once again.
... the day when pitchers and catchers report to Major League Baseball camps in Florida and Arizona is a cause for celebration.
It also leads some of us to glom onto any sort of emotional support device to help make it through the next several weeks.
For me, one of those is spring training, and the day when pitchers and catchers report to Major League Baseball camps in Florida and Arizona is a cause for celebration. And I know that soon after that date, I will be able to watch a few innings of exhibition games on television. The sounds of players hitting and catching baseballs again truly warms my soul, and so do the images of spectators in short sleeves and sundresses and coconut palms rising high in the sky.
Golf is another hopeful harbinger of spring, which is why I also get excited when the PGA Tour comes to the Sunshine State at the end of February – and the Florida Swing begins.
This year, it started with the Cognizant Classic at PGA National and will continue for three more weeks with the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass and finally the Valspar Championship at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor. In addition to enabling me to take in some very good golf, these tournaments heighten my desire to be teeing it up myself and getting back to a time when I do not have to bundle up as if I was going skiing any time I want to fire up the Big Green Egg on my back terrace.
Another thing I like about spring training is how it eventually takes us to opening day, which to me is the sporting equivalent to daffodils blooming again and robins reappearing in our yard and once more pulling earthworms from the ground. It means we have made it through another winter and can begin to enjoy the promise that spring and summer bring.
I have similar sentiments about the Florida Swing, with those tournaments leading us closer to what is golf’s opening day – the Masters.
That can’t get here soon enough.
John Steinbreder
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Top: Joe DiMaggio during the 1936 New York Yankees training camp
BETTMANN COLLECTION, GETTY IMAGES