March 3, 2011
“In the frozen grip of winter, I'm sure you'll agree with me. Not a day goes by without someone talking baseball to some degree." -the late Jack Buck, St. Louis Cardinals sportscaster.
If you don't like spring baseball training, you are sick, or so said a radio announcer recently.
Each spring, baseball does indeed make us believe all over again that all things are possible, for a few weeks at least.
But long before spring arrives, baseball junkies and even the uninterested pine for the 30 MLB teams to begin practicing and playing in the Cactus League in Arizona or the Grapefruit League in Florida.
I suppose it is a right of passage signifying that winter is finally coming to an end.
Those 30 teams are divided evenly into two practice leagues, fifteen in each, but they are not limited to playing each other. They may also hold intra-squad games or play minor league teams or even college teams.
For a lot of other reasons, preseason is not at all like the regular season, and perhaps that is the beauty of it.
Did you know that statistics are no big deal in the preseason? A no-hitter or some other record-breaking performance could receive bored yawns in pre-season and is not added to the regular season stats.
Pitchers and catchers arrive early so they can have longer practices. The rest of the team gets there eventually. And as to attire, teams typically wear practice jerseys, not breaking out their official duds until opening day.
Families plan vacations and students schedule their spring break trips to be a part of spring training. They pack a picnic, visit with the players and enjoy the sunshine in Florida or Arizona.
The atmosphere is casual, relaxed and a whole barrel of fun.
As Jack Buck noted in his on-air radio poem titled "365", "The green grass and the fever grows. It's time to pack a bag and take a trip to Arizona or the Sunshine State. Perhaps you can't go, but there's the radio. So, you listen-you root-you wait."
It's a fever, and I am catching it. I may pack a bag.
But there is more to the story. In addition to being just plain fun, spring baseball training is big business.
According to the Arizona Republic , the Cactus League generates more than $300 million a year in economic impact to the greater Phoenix metropolitan area economy. The new Salt River Fields at Talking Stick complex is the latest of eight new stadiums built in the Valley of the Sun over the past 20 years. The Arizona Republic newspaper reports that more than $500 million has been spent on "building eight new stadiums and renovating two others for the 15 teams in the Valley."
Likewise in Florida, professional baseball means millions of dollars to the Florida economy. According to capitalsoup.com, a recent study commissioned by the Florida Sports Foundation revealed a $752-million annual impact on Florida's economy from Major League spring training. The same study also reported spring training supported or created more than 9,200 part-time or full-time jobs.
More than the business of it all, it is our love affair with spring baseball training and with baseball itself that makes it our national sport.
Buck summed it up nicely for us: "When someone asks you your favorite sport, and you answer baseball in a blink, there are certain qualities you must possess, and you're more attached than you think."
And as Walt Whitman said, "I see great things in baseball. It's our game--the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, and give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us."
Yes, we are more attached than we think.
Play ball!
